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Minnesota Women's Healthy Heart Project
The Minnesota Women’s Healthy Heart Program (MWHHP) is a research study and public health pilot project of the Minnesota Women’s Health Collaborative, comprised of the University of Minnesota Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health, NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, Inc., the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Northeastern Minnesota Area Health Education Center (AHEC), and Fairview Range Regional Health Services Mesaba Clinic in Hibbing, Minnesota. Our partnership is targeting women of color and immigrant women in the North Minneapolis and University areas, and rural and Native American women in the Hibbing area. MDH developed the intervention model we are using to deliver services and serves as the data manager for the project.
The project is jointly funded by the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center and the Office of Clinical Research.
The Minnesota Healthy Heart Project offers cardiovascular screening for women over the age of 18. Each participant has blood tests for cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose, and then is given an appointment for additional measures of blood pressure, height, weight, and waist measurement. These values are entered into a computer program that produces an assessment of their individual risk for heart disease. Participants then engage in an educational session and individual or small group lifestyle counseling and coaching regarding healthy life style change. Each person has the opportunity to set realistic, attainable nutrition and physical activity goals. Healthy Heart personnel then provide follow-up calls at 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months. Along the way, incentives are provided for reaching goals. At the one-year mark, women will have their blood work repeated and come in for an annual visit. At this point we will re-measure blood pressure, weight and waist.
The focus of the project is to increase access to cardiovascular screening for women who experience health disparities. The University of Minnesota already has comprehensive cardiovascular programs in place, as does NorthPoint Health & Wellness. However, these programs are not adequately reaching the immigrant communities.
Each clinical site has developed its own procedures to carry out the program, based on the needs of the community they serve and the unique resources at hand. At the University, graduate students in Public Health are carrying out group education and individual lifestyle counseling, and doing data gathering and data analysis.
A unique feature of the project at NorthPoint is the utilization of Community Health Workers (CHWs), people who are trained to bridge the gap between mainstream American medicine and the cultural, language and economic issues that pose barriers for immigrant and minority groups as they attempt to access health care. Research studies have shown that the use of CHWs facilitates access and improves health outcomes in communities experiencing health disparities.
At Fairview Mesaba Clinic, the emphasis is on establishing the SAGE+ program for uninsured rural and Native American women in the rural area of Hibbing, Nashwauk, Mountain Iron and the Nett Lake Indian Reservation, where there is a higher level of uninsurance as well as transportation barriers and poverty than in many other areas of Minnesota. SAGE+ is the program administered by MDH and the model we are using to provide intervention services to participants.
At all three clinical sites, the Minnesota Women’s Healthy Heart Project will implement culturally appropriate strategies for education and clinical care.
The Minnesota Women’s Healthy Heart Project will run for three years (September 1, 2007 to August 31, 2010). In that time our goal is to provide clinical assessment and lifestyle intervention counseling to approximately 2000 women and outreach/education to approximately 10,000 Minnesota women.
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