3310 A Community-Academic Partnership to Understand the Association Among Health Status and Senior Services Utilization to Improve Nutrition and Blood Pressure Control for Low Income Seniors Aging in Place
Authors: Vasquez Kimberly , Guishard Dozene , Desai Rina , Naji Moufd , Jiang Caroline , Ronning Andrea , George-Alexander Glenis , Ceballo Onassis Castillo , Berman Jackie , Tobin Jonathan N. , Kost Rhonda G 
Published: March 2019

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: The Rockefeller University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (RU-CCTS), Clinical Directors Network (CDN), and Carter Burden Network (CBN), a multi-site senior services organization serving East Harlem, NY, formed a community-academic research partnership to characterize the health of the CBN seniors (many who are racial/ethnic minorities, low-income, and suffering from multiple chronic conditions) and to explore the use and associations of a measure of overall health status and frailty in this population. A simple validated measure of health status could standardize and streamline community-based translational research to study the impact of CBN’s services on health outcomes. The CCTS-funded Pilot Project aims to: 1) Engage CBN seniors and stakeholders in priority-setting, joint protocol development, research conduct, analysis and dissemination; 2) Characterize the health status of the CBN seniors using validated measures; 3) Establish an electronic database infrastructure for current and future research; 4) Understand how health and senior activities information can be used to implement programs to improve senior health and well-being. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: 1) We used Community Engaged Research Navigation (CEnR-Nav) methods to facilitate partnership development, and to engage CBN seniors and stakeholders in each step of the research; 2) Research staff conducted recruitment, informed consent, and physical assessments (e.g., pulse, blood pressure, BMI); and administered validated surveys to collect health status information. 3) Data were captured on a REDCap-based platform. The primary outcome, frailty, was measured by the validated Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). 4) Secondary outcomes include the association of use of services/activities with the primary outcome. Research participants consented to sharing of their health, demographic and services utilization data compiled by CBN staff and the NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA). DFTA provided comparison datasets of de-identified health and demographic data for clients attending other NYC DFTA-funded senior centers. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: 1) 43 residents and stakeholders engaged in partnership-building, study design and implementation. 2) 218 participants from two senior centers were enrolled. Mean age, 68 ± 11 years; 58% Hispanic; 33% African American, 23% White, 1% Asian, 18% Unknown, 17% Other; 69% reported <$20000 annual income; 40% had not completed high school; 30% scored as moderately or severely frail; 83% were overweight or obese; and 33% reported a history of diabetes. 84% had uncontrolled high blood pressure; many participants were previously aware of their hypertension diagnosis. 3) A REDcap database was developed to store historical and prospective data. 4) Across frailty categories, there was a significant difference in utilization of non-meal (p = 0.0237) and meal services (p = 0.0127) and there was an inverse proportional relationship between the number of meal and non-meal visits, and frailty. Additional associations among health status measures (e.g., SPPB, demographics, biological measures: pulse, blood pressure, BMI; psychosocial and nutritional scales) and CBN service utilization (i.e., meals vs. non-meals activities) will be presented. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: We developed a community-academic research partnership, infrastructure and capacity, built through our Community-Engaged (CEnR-Nav) model, to conduct a pilot study characterizing the health status and services utilization of low-income minority seniors. Our pilot study identified an urgent health priority, uncontrolled hypertension in 84% of CBN’s seniors. We then leveraged the team’s expertise and CBN’s meal services program to develop a research proposal for external funding to conduct a community-based multi-component intervention study. Replacement of a typical Western diet with the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet has been proven to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive and normotensive individuals in as little as 14 days, yet effective implementation has been lacking, and it is relatively untested in community-living seniors who receive their meals in settings such as CBN. We are also exploring mechanistic questions that relate to blood pressure control, such as the impact of the DASH diet on inflammation, which may lead to a better understanding of the underlying mechanism of action of the DASH diet. Our community partner, CBN, was awarded the DHHS-ACL nutrition innovation grant to conduct this 2-year study with CDN and RU-CCTS. The resulting study developed out of the community engaged pilot study represents a unique combination of community-centered care, within an implementation science framework (with embedded mechanistic measures under development). This is an example of the novel, full-spectrum approach to translational research that the RU-CCTS/CDN Community Engaged Research Core has been developing over the last decade. The research to characterize CBN clients’ health status is now being extended to address cardiovascular health by way of intervening on diet quality and food insecurity, a key component of the social determinants of health, in partnership with agencies outside of the healthcare delivery system. The outcomes of the DASH Diet implementation study will also serve to inform the broader aging service provider network and the healthcare community about the impact of senior center congregate meal composition and services on health outcomes.