Outreach helps rural patients tackle high blood pressure at home
![Melissa Justice, 威廉森健康与保健中心的注册护士和社区卫生工作者协调员, helps Craig Warren stay on top of his blood pressure.](/-/media/Images/Around-the-AHA/Rural-Health-images/West-Virginia/WV_HomeBP_SC.jpg?sc_lang=en)
威廉森,西弗吉尼亚州——克雷格·沃伦成长的过程中,他的生活一直围绕着体育运动. 足球、篮球、棒球——“如果学校有,我就会去打,”他说.
但多年来,像体育运动这样的健康活动让位于其他需求. At 57, Warren has heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes. Ten years ago, he had a stroke. Three years ago, he received a kidney transplant.
These days, Warren checks his blood pressure four times a day, logging the numbers and reporting them to Melissa Justice, 他的社区卫生工作者和威廉森健康中心的护士. 她向沃伦展示了如何测量血压,并定期与他进行检查.
"Melissa calls to make sure my blood pressure is doing fine. If it isn't, she's in touch with the transplant clinic and they decide what I need to do," said Warren, 在这个曾经繁荣的阿巴拉契亚煤城的家中,他每周都能看到正义.
"It's so important for us to monitor his blood pressure now and keep it down, because if we don't, we could possibly lose the transplanted kidney," Justice said.
Key to Warren's ability to track his blood pressure is the monitor he's using, on loan from the Williamson Health and Wellness Center. It's one of more than 150 at-home, 该中心为那些负担不起的社区成员提供了经过验证的血压设备,这些人的健康取决于他们是否有能力定期检查血压以控制血压.
Because insurance often won't cover the cost, the center provides these devices, 这要感谢与美国心脏协会的合作以及帕罗廷亨廷顿基金会的资助, West Virginia. 通过在全国各地的诊所和联邦合格医疗中心建立类似的伙伴关系, 美国心脏协会帮助成千上万需要的人戴上了血压袖带. Many, like Warren, live in rural areas with limited access to care.
High blood pressure's dangers
Nearly half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, also called hypertension. Untreated, hypertension contributes to serious health conditions including heart attacks, heart failure, strokes, diabetes and kidney failure. Overall, only about one-fourth of U.S. adults with high blood pressure keep it properly controlled.
West Virginia has some of the highest rates of hypertension in the nation. Mingo County, where Warren lives, is no exception.
West Virginia also has nearly three times the national poverty rate. 许多居民无法获得健康食品和其他资源,这些资源可以使他们更容易地与大量导致人口死亡的慢性疾病作斗争.
Hypertension is only one of them, but it's a critical one to control. 研究表明,将血压水平降低10毫米汞柱,可将主要心血管沙巴体育平台点击进入的风险降低20%, stroke by 27% and death from any cause by 13%.
研究表明,家庭血压监测程序可以成功地降低高血压发病率. That's happening in Williamson, 健康中心被美国心脏协会认可在其服务的居民中高血压控制率超过70%. 迄今为止,77%的患者血压保持在正常范围内.
贾斯蒂斯说,这个出借血压设备的项目出现在关键时刻. 2020年期间,COVID-19大流行关闭了当地药房的许多自我监测亭. "No one had easy access to cuffs, and that's when the AHA stepped up. Especially during that time, it was very much appreciated."
What's more, the devices that the AHA helps provide are state-of-the-art, she said, noting that health insurance companies typically don't cover such devices.
Engaging the community
Holly Mitchell, the AHA's community impact director in West Virginia, who oversees the partnership, said seeing blood pressure numbers daily motivates people to lower them.
"When you give them the cuffs, you put power into their hands," Mitchell said. "It's almost like a game, how to get those numbers down. They start doing things like getting their weight down, exercising more."
Williamson isn't the only location benefiting from the program.
Using funds from the Pallottine Foundation grant, 米切尔说,她已经与西弗吉尼亚州几个县的诊所和图书馆建立了关系,这些诊所向牙医和图书馆提供血压设备, hoping to reach people who might otherwise be overlooked. All told, she's given out about 1,000 devices to programs across the state.
"We're trying to meet people where they are," she said. “他们可能不经常去看医生,但他们可能每年去两次洗牙."
If a dentist discovers a patient has high blood pressure, that patient is referred to a local clinic for a medical consultation, she said. “这种‘温暖的交接’为需要高血压治疗的人提供了关键的临床随访."
米切尔说,图书馆是另一个帮助那些不经常去看医生的人的好地方.
About 90 miles from Williamson, 卡贝尔县图书馆系统把血压监测仪当作书籍出借. The program operates through a partnership with Valley Health, 它在西弗吉尼亚州西南部和俄亥俄州南部经营着40个医疗中心和公共卫生项目.
Cassie McCray, a medical assistant and community health professional for Valley Health, 在卡贝尔县的盐湖城公共图书馆,在每月的活动中安排一张桌子, showing people how to use the devices. She takes their blood pressure, 解释什么是健康的血压水平,并告诉人们吃什么或避免吃什么来适当地控制血压.
“大多数停下来量血压的人已经在服药了," said McCray. "But a lot of them don't have a way to check their blood pressure at home. They can take these monitors home, and that helps."
McCray recommends people see their doctor when their numbers are high. If they don't have a doctor, or if they don't have insurance, 她把他们介绍给山谷健康诊所,在那里他们可以根据自己的负担能力支付费用. Some are surprised to learn they have hypertension.
米切尔希望扩大这个项目,并一直在寻找新的方法来接触那些可能受益的人.
"We're always going to try," she said. “在西弗吉尼亚州,高血压确实困扰着我们,这真的很有帮助."