A Medical Assistant-Based Program to Promote Healthy Behaviors in Primary Care

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

864 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2005-12-31

Study Completion Date

2007-05-31

Brief Summary

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The purpose of the study is to determine whether a program of screening and intervention for four health risk behaviors (smoking, problem drinking, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet) carried out by medical assistants in primary care practices can help patients improve their behaviors. The hypothesis is that patients who receive the intervention will demonstrate higher rates of health behavior change than patients who receive usual care.

Detailed Description

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Unhealthy behaviors are the most common actual causes of death in the United States. The high prevalence of behavioral risk factors in primary care calls for a response of appropriate scale. One strategy to achieve a greater scale of delivering interventions is to relieve the bottleneck of physician assessment and management. Creating a system that engages other members of the primary care team to link patients who are ready to change with practice, health system and community resources is a mechanism to amplify the practice's impact and thus achieve the necessary scale.

The project evaluates a model of primary care that manages population risk with appropriate expertise at the necessary scale. We test the effectiveness of a medical assistant-based program to link patients with behavioral risk factors to interventions at the practice, health system, and community levels. We hypothesize that intervention-group patients will achieve higher rates of behavior change than control patients.

The study is a controlled trial in the PRENSA network, which includes six urban practices serving a disadvantaged Latino population. Using data from a health risk assessment (HRA) routinely collected in PRENSA practices, medical assistants will assess 4500 patients' behavioral risks and apply behavior-specific "assess-advise-agree-assist-arrange" algorithms to engage behavioral interventions in the practices, health system, and local public health department. Outcomes data will be collected at 6-9 month follow-up with repeated completion of a standardized health risk assessment. The primary analyses will compare outcome measures for smoking, problem drinking, sedentary lifestyle, and unhealthy diet in intervention and control patients.

We anticipate the study will show a medical assistant-based program to address smoking, risky drinking, sedentary living, and unhealthy diet in primary care to be feasible and effective. We will evaluate program effectiveness by assessing the number of patients reached, interventions requested and completed, impact on medical assistant workflow and satisfaction, costs to the practices, and impact on health behaviors.

Conditions

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Smoking Problem Drinking Sedentary Lifestyle Unhealthy Diet

Keywords

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Behavioral risk factors Primary Care Health services research

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

PREVENTION

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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1

Medical assistant identification and referral for behavioral risk factors.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Intervention for 4 behavioral risks by medical assistants.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

2

Usual care for behavioral risk factors.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Intervention for 4 behavioral risks by medical assistants.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age 18 or over
* Uninsured, enrolled in Bexar County CareLink program
* Has completed baseline Health Risk Assessment

Exclusion Criteria

* Unwillingness to participate

Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Principal Investigators

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Robert L Ferrer, MD, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Locations

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