Clinical trial NCT00850824: Community Health Workers in Diabetes Care in American Samoa
Official title: Diabetes Care in American Samoa
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Keywords: T2DM
Lead sponsor: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Sponsor class: NIH
Collaborators: name: Brown University
name: The Miriam Hospital
name: Tafuna Family Health Center
First posted: 2009-02-25
Enrollment: 268
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 21
Maximum age (years): 75
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: As type 2 diabetes prevalence increases in the United States, the burden of diabetes falls more on groups with greater barriers to care, such as language and cultural differences, and lower economic resources. Healthy People 2010 targeted diabetes as one of six diseases for the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities. These disparities extend to the US Territory of American Samoa, where the proportion of adults \>18 years with diabetes was 19.6% in 2002, compared to 6.4% of US adults. There have been no reported diabetes interventions in Samoans in the US. The overall purpose of this application is to translate recent advances in diabetes care into clinical practice for the American Samoan community by improving methods of health care delivery and methods of diabetes self management. We will conduct a randomized clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW) and primary-care coordinated intervention to provide outreach, education and support to 352 type 2 diabetes patients and their families in American Samoa. The CHW intervention will utilize evidence-based algorithms and protocols to prompt risk behavior interventions, communication with health care team, and visit schedule. The individual treatment action plans are also guided by the Precede-Proceed Model. The outcomes at a one-year follow-up will include glycosolated hemoglobin (HbA1c), cardiovascular disease risk factors, diet and exercise behaviors, and adherence to diabetes care guidelines. The study hypothesis is that diabetes patients in the CHW trial arm will have lower HbA1c levels, lower cardiovascular disease risk factor levels, increased exercise behaviors and healthy dietary intakes and greater adherence to diabetes care such as adherence to prescribed medications, keeping medical appointments for diabetes care and specialty referrals. The intervention builds upon best clinical practices for CHWs in diabetes care by translating effective strategies to American Samoans, while also extending prior CHW research, by using a model that is potentially replicable in other ethnic minority populations suffering the burden of diabetes.

Detailed description: We will perform a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a community health worker (CHW) and primary-care coordinated intervention to provide outreach, education and support to diabetes patients and their families. The outcomes at a one-year follow-up will include glycosolated hemoglobin (HbA1c), CVD risk factors, diet and exercise behaviors, and adherence to diabetes care guidelines. The intervention builds upon best practices to date with CHWs, by translating effective strategies to Samoans, an ethnic minority population with no prior intervention research, while also extending prior CHW research, by using a model that is potentially replicable anywhere that uses outreach strategies in the context of primary care. This application builds on the current more limited activities of CHWs at the Tafuna Family Health Center (TFHC), a primary care health center established in 1998, operated by the American Samoa Government Department of Health, and designated as a community health center by the U.S. Bureau of Primary Health Care in 2003.

We will conduct a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a CHW outreach intervention, compared to usual care (UC) in a wait-list control group. The specific aims are:

A.1. To improve control of diabetes: We hypothesize that the CHW outreach intervention group will have greater one-year reductions in glycosolated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels compared to the UC group.

A.2. To improve cardiovascular risk factors: We hypothesize that the CHW outreach intervention group will have greater one-year reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, BMI, and abdominal circumference compared to the UC Group.

A.3. To improve diet and physical activity behaviors: We hypothesize that the diabetes patients randomized to the CHW intervention will have a greater one-year increase in favorable dietary and physical activity behaviors associated with self-management of their diabetes compared to the UC group.

A.4. To improve adherence to processes of diabetes care. The CHW group will have a higher percent of diabetes patients with the following American Diabetes Association (ADA) standards of care: 1) at least two HBA1c tests in the last year (at least 3 months apart), 2) percent of patients with documentation of self-management goals in the past 12 months, 3) percent of patients with a dental exam in past year, 4) percent of patients with a dilated eye exam in the past year, 5) percent of patients with a documented foot exam in the past year. We hypothesize that the CHW intervention will outperform UC on these variables over one year.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria: diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, age 21 years and above, resident of American Samoa receiving primary care at Tafuna Family Health Center -

Exclusion Criteria: pregnancy, receiving kidney dialysis

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Primary outcomes:
measure: glycosolated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels
timeFrame: one year
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Blood pressure
timeFrame: one year
measure: serum lipid levels
timeFrame: one year
measure: abdominal circumference
timeFrame: one year
measure: changes in exericse patterns
timeFrame: one year
measure: changes in dietary intake
timeFrame: one year
measure: keeping scheduled medical appointments
timeFrame: one year
measure: keeping specialty referral for medical exams
timeFrame: one year
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Pago Pago
country: American Samoa
facility: Tafuna Family Health Center
Study officials:
affiliation: Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
name: Stephen T McGarvey, PhD, MPH
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Elstad E, Tusiofo C, Rosen RK, McGarvey ST. Living with Ma'i Suka: individual, familial, cultural, and environmental stress among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their caregivers in American Samoa. Prev Chronic Dis. 2008 Jul;5(3):A79. Epub 2008 Jun 15.
citation: Rosen RK, DePue J, McGarvey ST. Overweight and diabetes in American Samoa: the cultural translation of research into health care practice. Med Health R I. 2008 Dec;91(12):372-3, 376-7. No abstract available.
citation: DePue JD, Rosen RK, Batts-Turner M, Bereolos N, House M, Held RF, Nu'usolia O, Tuitele J, Goldstein MG, McGarvey ST. Cultural translation of interventions: diabetes care in American Samoa. Am J Public Health. 2010 Nov;100(11):2085-93. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.170134. Epub 2010 Sep 23.
citation: Held RF, DePue J, Rosen R, Bereolos N, Nu'usolia O, Tuitele J, Goldstein M, House M, McGarvey S. Patient and health care provider views of depressive symptoms and diabetes in American Samoa. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2010 Oct;16(4):461-7. doi: 10.1037/a0020089.
citation: Stewart DW, Depue J, Rosen RK, Bereolos N, Goldstein MG, Tuitele J, Nu'usolia O, McGarvey ST. Medication-taking beliefs and diabetes in American Samoa: a qualitative inquiry. Transl Behav Med. 2013 Mar 1;3(1):30-38. doi: 10.1007/s13142-012-0114-y. Epub 2012 Feb 1.
citation: DePue JD, Dunsiger S, Seiden AD, Blume J, Rosen RK, Goldstein MG, Nu'usolia O, Tuitele J, McGarvey ST. Nurse-community health worker team improves diabetes care in American Samoa: results of a randomized controlled trial. Diabetes Care. 2013 Jul;36(7):1947-53. doi: 10.2337/dc12-1969. Epub 2013 Feb 7.
citation: DePue JD, Rosen RK, Seiden A, Bereolos N, Chima ML, Goldstein MG, Nu'usolia O, Tuitele J, McGarvey ST. Implementation of a culturally tailored diabetes intervention with community health workers in American Samoa. Diabetes Educ. 2013 Nov-Dec;39(6):761-71. doi: 10.1177/0145721713504630. Epub 2013 Sep 19.
citation: Hamid S, Dunsiger S, Seiden A, Nu'usolia O, Tuitele J, DePue JD, McGarvey ST. Impact of a diabetes control and management intervention on health care utilization in American Samoa. Chronic Illn. 2014 Jun;10(2):122-34. doi: 10.1177/1742395313502367. Epub 2013 Oct 1.
citation: Huang SJ, Galarraga O, Smith KA, Fuimaono S, McGarvey ST. Cost-effectiveness analysis of a cluster-randomized, culturally tailored, community health worker home-visiting diabetes intervention versus standard care in American Samoa. Hum Resour Health. 2019 Mar 5;17(1):17. doi: 10.1186/s12960-019-0356-6.
citation: Rao M, DePue JD, Dunsiger S, Elsayed M, Nu'usolia O, McGarvey ST. Long-Term Impact of a Community Health Worker Intervention on Diabetes Control in American Samoa. Prev Chronic Dis. 2015 Oct 22;12:E180. doi: 10.5888/pcd12.150160.