HEALS Hypertension Control Program: Training Church Members as Program Leaders.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Disparities
• Community Health

Background:

• Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including stroke, disproportionately affect African-Americans (AAs).
• The HEALS program is a faith-based hypertension (HTN) control initiative adapted for AA communities.
• Church Health Advisors (CHAs) are lay members trained to deliver the HEALS program.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and acceptability of training CHAs to lead the HEALS program.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a culturally modified health intervention delivered by community members.

Main Methods:

• A 10-hour training workshop on the HEALS program was conducted for four CHAs by nutrition experts.
• CHAs evaluated the workshop based on satisfaction, content clarity, and delivery comfort.

Main Results:

• All six core components of the HEALS curriculum were successfully covered.
• CHAs reported high satisfaction with the training length, content-skills balance, and program delivery.

Conclusions:

• Culturally adapted, church-based health promotion programs delivered by community lay members show promise.
• This model may be an effective strategy for reducing health disparities in ethnic minority populations.