A Community Engagement Method to Design Patient Engagement Materials for Cardiovascular Health

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research
• Clinical Trials

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) care improvement requires effective patient and community engagement.
• Standard practice facilitation may be enhanced by tailored, community-specific interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of community and patient engagement on cardiovascular disease (CVD) care within a cluster-randomized trial.
• To assess the effectiveness of locally tailored CVD patient engagement materials developed through Boot Camp Translation (BCT).

Main Methods:

• A cluster-randomized trial design was employed with primary care practices in Colorado and New Mexico.
• Geographic-based covariate constrained randomization balanced study arms and minimized contamination.
• Boot Camp Translation (BCT) involved community members, practice staff, and public health professionals to develop tailored engagement materials.

Main Results:

• Four distinct Boot Camp Translations (BCTs) generated unique messages and materials reflecting community values and priorities.
• Materials ranged from focusing on family values and spiritual well-being to early prevention and CVD risk relevance.
• The constrained randomization allowed BCTs to occur before practice recruitment, ensuring tailored content and balanced populations.

Conclusions:

• Community-based interventions in cluster-randomized trials present unique design and implementation challenges.
• Tailored BCTs yielded contextually relevant messages and materials, demonstrating that CVD risk reduction strategies may not be universally applicable.
• Interventions for primary care practices to decrease CVD risk should be customized to specific community needs.