Impact of Community Health Representative-Led Patient Activation and Engagement on Home-Based Kidney Care

This project has results

Results Summary and Professional Abstract

Results Summary

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What was the research about?

More than 30 million people in the United States have kidney disease. With this health problem, people’s kidneys stop working well or don’t work at all. It can be hard to manage kidney disease for people who have trouble getting health care.

Care may not be easy to get for the Zuni Indians of the Zuni Reservation in rural New Mexico. Getting to the health clinic can be hard. People often wait a long time to get the care they need.

In this study, the research team wanted to learn if an at-home education program would help Zuni adults with kidney disease have better knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage their illness. The team also looked at whether the program helped Zuni adults improve their quality of life and reduce risk factors for kidney disease. Risk factors include being overweight and having high blood sugar and high blood pressure.

The study compared a group of Zuni adults in the at-home program with a group of adults who were not in the program and who received care at the Indian Health Services, or IHS, clinic.

What were the results?

Compared with those who received care at the IHS clinic, Zuni adults in the at-home program had better

Knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage kidney disease
Quality of life related to mental health

Zuni adults in the at-home program reduced some risk factors for kidney disease, such as blood sugar levels and weight, more than adults who only went to the IHS clinic. For other risk factors, such as blood pressure, there were no differences between the two groups.

There was no difference between the two groups in quality of life related to physical health.

Who was in the study?

The study included 125 Zuni Indian adults living with kidney disease on the Zuni Reservation in rural New Mexico. Of these, 98 completed the 12-month study.

What did the research team do?

The team assigned people to one of two groups by chance. The first group received care through the at-home program. In this program, community health representatives visited Zuni adults with kidney disease in their homes every other week. The community health representatives were people from the Zuni community who worked as part of a clinical care team. At the home visits, they taught participants about exercise, healthy diet, and blood pressure. The community health representatives also did lab tests to check for kidney disease risk factors. For the first six months of the program, participants received text messages with reminders about healthy living. Every three months, participants went to a health class at the IHS clinic. Zuni tribal leaders and members from a Tribal Advisory Panel helped design this program.

Adults in the second group received their usual care at the IHS clinic. Adults in both groups took a survey at the start of the study and again 12 months later. The survey asked about people’s quality of life and their knowledge, skills, and confidence for managing kidney disease.

What were the limits of the study?

The study took place in one American Indian reservation in rural New Mexico. The results might be different for people in other places. The team didn’t look at which parts of the program might explain the changes they found.

Future research could see if the program works as well with a larger group of people with kidney disease. Researchers could also look more closely at each part of the program.

How can people use the results?

Clinics in rural areas could consider offering at-home programs with community health representatives to help patients with kidney disease.

Professional Abstract

Objective

To compare the effects of a home-based educational intervention delivered by community health representatives (CHRs) versus usual clinic-based care on patient activation, quality of life, and risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adult Zuni Indians

Study Design

Design Elements	Description
Design	Randomized controlled trial
Population	125 adult Zuni Indians living with CKD on the Zuni reservation in rural New Mexico
Interventions/ Comparators	Home-based CKD education from CHRs Usual care from IHS
Outcomes	Primary: patient activation, or the knowledge, skills, and confidence to effectively manage one’s health and health care Secondary: quality of life and clinical risk factors for CKD such as body mass index, hemoglobin A1c, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, blood pressure, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate
Timeframe	12-month follow-up for primary outcome

This small randomized controlled trial tested the comparative effectiveness of a home-based educational intervention delivered by CHRs as part of a clinical care team versus usual care provided by local Zuni Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics. The team designed the intervention with input from a Tribal Advisory Panel including Zuni community members, the Zuni Governor, the Tribal Council, and IHS.

The intervention consisted of biweekly home visits by CHRs who educated and trained participants in exercising, maintaining a healthy diet, and monitoring blood pressure. During these visits, CHRs also tested for CKD risk factors. For the first six months, the CHRs delivered Zuni culturally tailored motivational text messaging about healthier living. In addition, participants attended quarterly group sessions consisting of interactive discussions at the Zuni Health Initiative clinic. Participants in the usual care group received usual care at local Zuni IHS clinics.

The research team randomized 125 Zuni adults with moderate-to-severe CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 ml/min/1.73 m² or urine albumin to creatinine ratio ≥30 mg/g) from households in which at least one person had participated in a prior study to either the intervention or usual care groups. Of these, 98 completed the study.

Shortly after enrollment and again 12 months later, the team collected clinical lab and survey data. Survey data included the 13-item Patient Activation Measure (PAM) and the 36-item Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL) questionnaire with the following subscales: the 12-item Short Form mental and physical health (SF-12), burden of kidney disease, effects of kidney disease, and symptoms and problems of kidney disease.

Results

At 12 months, compared with adults in the usual care group, those in the intervention group experienced greater improvement in patient activation, mental health quality of life, and three clinical risk factors for CKD. Body mass index in the intervention group decreased 1.07 kg/m² more than in the usual care group (p=0.008). Hemoglobin A1c levels in the intervention group decreased 0.71% more than in the usual care group (p=0.012). The high-sensitivity C-reactive protein levels in the intervention group decreased by 4.3 mg/L compared with an increase of 4.6 mg/L in the usual care group (p<0.001).

The two groups did not differ significantly in the other KDQOL subscales examined or in blood pressure, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, serum creatinine, or estimated glomerular filtration rate.

Limitations

The study included a small sample of adults from one American Indian reservation in rural New Mexico. Findings from the study may not generalize to other communities. Further, the research team did not examine which components of the intervention may have contributed to the observed changes within the intervention group.

Conclusions and Relevance

Culturally appropriate home-based education from CHRs improved patient activation, mental health, and certain CKD risk factors among rural Zuni adults in this small study. Home-based education may be a promising approach for other adults with CKD who experience barriers to accessing health care.

Future Research Needs

A large randomized controlled trial could test the scalability of the intervention. Studies could also examine the effects of the various intervention components on patient activation and health.

Final Research Report

View this project's final research report.

Journal Articles

Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Home-Based Kidney Care, Patient Activation, and Risk Factors for CKD Progression in Zuni Indians: A Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial

Endocrine Practice

Performance of A1C Versus OGTT for the Diagnosis of Prediabetes in a Community-Based Screening

BMC Genomics

Selecting SNPs informative for African, American Indian and European Ancestry: application to the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND)

PLoS One

A Home-Based Educational Intervention Improves Patient Activation Measures and Diabetes Health Indicators among Zuni Indians

Frontiers in Genetics

Genetics of kidney disease and related cardiometabolic phenotypes in Zuni Indians: the Zuni Kidney Project

Journal of Evaluation In Clinical Practice

Assessing knowledge and attitudes of diabetes in Zuni Indians using a culture-centered approach

Clinical and Translational Science

Identifying barriers to healthcare to reduce health disparity in Zuni Indians using focus group conducted by community health workers

PLoS One

A genome-wide search for linkage of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND)

Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Plasma metabolomic profiles in different stages of CKD

Peer-Review Summary

Peer review of PCORI-funded research helps make sure the report presents complete, balanced, and useful information about the research. It also assesses how the project addressed PCORI’s Methodology Standards. During peer review, experts read a draft report of the research and provide comments about the report. These experts may include a scientist focused on the research topic, a specialist in research methods, a patient or caregiver, and a healthcare professional. These reviewers cannot have conflicts of interest with the study.

The peer reviewers point out where the draft report may need revision. For example, they may suggest ways to improve descriptions of the conduct of the study or to clarify the connection between results and conclusions. Sometimes, awardees revise their draft reports twice or more to address all of the reviewers’ comments.

The awardee made the following revisions in response to peer review:

The awardee revised the structure of the report to better tell the story of how the work in each aim led to the next aim. The awardee removed the parts of the aim 1 discussion that had confused reviewers. The awardee also revised the background section to focus on the evidence gap in disease burden and optimal care in chronic kidney disease.
The awardee provided more information on stakeholder engagement by describing in detail the team’s long-standing collaboration with this American Indian community. The awardee explained that the study’s design and implementation involved close collaboration with this community.
The awardee further explained its description of the study as both a randomized controlled trial, RCT, and a pilot study. The awardee clarified that the study uses a RCT design with pilot components, such as measuring the feasibility of testing the effect of the intervention on chronic kidney disease outcomes in future trials.
The awardee defined the terms intent-to-treat analysis and per-protocol analysis. The awardee explained that in per-protocol analysis, it compared groups of patients who completed the study. The awardee further explained that in intent-to-treat analysis, it compared the intervention and control groups while including patients who had dropped out, with the assumption that those patients had no change in outcomes. The awardee treated this comparison as a sensitivity analysis.
In the study limitations section, the awardee noted that this project was a pilot study but added that the awardee tried to account for baseline differences to make the findings as robust as possible. In all, the awardee described the results as tentative but promising.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures

View the COI disclosure form

Project Details

Principal Investigator

Vallabh O. Shah, PhD

Project Status

Completed; PCORI Public and Professional Abstracts, and Final Research Report Posted

Project Title

Reducing Health Disparity in Chronic Kidney Disease in Zuni Indians

Board Approval Date

May 2013

Project End Date

October 2018

Organization

University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

Year Awarded

2013

State

New Mexico

Year Completed

2018

Project Type

Research Project

Health Conditions

Kidney Diseases

Chronic Kidney Disease

Cardiovascular Diseases

Hypertension

Nutritional and Metabolic Disorders

Diabetes

Nutritional and Metabolic Disorders - Other

Intervention Strategies

Behavioral Interventions
Care Coordination
Other Health Services Interventions
Technology Interventions
Telemedicine
Training and Education Interventions

Populations

Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Low Income

Funding Announcement

Addressing Disparities

Project Budget

$716,243

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

10.25302/4.2019.AD.12115532

Study Registration Information

HSRP20143244

NCT02915029

Page Last Updated:

July 22, 2019