A Youth-Led Digital Education Intervention to Improve Blood Pressure for Hypertensive Adults Who Present to the Emergency Department

Detailed Summary

The proposed study will develop, test, and collect implementation data on a youth-led hypertension (HTN) education intervention, which will act as an electronic tool to guide youth through learning and then teaching adults on how to achieve better HTN control. Adults with HTN and youth will be recruited for user-centered design sessions to provide input in the development of a youth-led HTN education digital badge. The investigators will then recruit adult emergency department (ED) patients with uncontrolled HTN (blood pressure (BP) ≥130/80 mm Hg) who know (friend or family member) a youth (14-24 years old) and the youth themselves for a RCT. The adult plus youth dyad will be randomized to either: 1) intervention arm- 6-week youth-led HTN education digital badge at home- or 2) control arm- 6-week youth job readiness digital badge at home. In addition to the primary study outcome of adult BP change 2-months post-intervention, the investigator will collect secondary outcomes of HTN knowledge and youth self-efficacy, as well as implementation metrics of intervention acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity. Due to challenges recruiting youth through adults in the ED, we will be adding a cohort to the study where we will recruit interested youth from New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School (NBHSTHS). Specific aims are: Aim 1: Create a youth-led HTN education digital badge by means of user-centered design methods and community engagement with adults with HTN and youth to obtain input on the contents of the digital badge prior to implementation. Aim 1a: The hypertension knowledge assessment being used in the study has not been used before on youth or Spanish-speaking populations, so the investigators will obtain feedback on the assessment from these groups. Aim 2: Evaluate the effectiveness of a youth-led HTN education digital badge intervention on the primary outcome of mean systolic BP and diastolic BP change in adults with uncontrolled HTN at 2-months post-intervention compared to the control group (for participants recruited from the ED). Additionally, evaluate change in HTN knowledge and youth self-efficacy. Aim 3: Evaluate the implementation process of the youth-led HTN education digital badge by collecting qualitative and quantitative data on acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity of the intervention by participants.

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions