Culturally-Tailored Approach to Improve Medication Use in Patients With Heart Attacks

The lipid-specific and pleiotropic benefits of statin therapy, and secondary prevention of coronary artery disease (CAD) mortality have been demonstrated. Statin therapy in particular is underutilized in both white and Black American populations who have CAD and who do not have access to therapy or who cannot afford it. Systems factors related to these findings involve a lack of continuous access to medications following hospital discharge for many Black Americans and for white Americans who do not have the ability to readily afford their medicines or who do not have the educational background to understand the importance of therapy. In many cases, there is failure by primary care physicians to continue statin therapy after discharge in patients who have poor access to therapy or who do not comply with pharmacotherapy. Patient factors include mistrust and volitional nonadherence related to beliefs and personal priorities, and a lack of education and support related to preventive therapy. This trial will thus take place in lower income and lower educational level Black and white American patients identified at the time of hospitalization and will continue for two years after a myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass graft, or percutaneous intervention. The overall hypothesis is that a quality of care intervention delivered to Black and white American patients with lower incomes and /or education by a culturally competent community health worker (CHW) within an existing hospital system will result in improved outcomes. The CHW will counsel patients and help them access resources, including Maryland and private pharmacy assistance programs. The specific aims are to compare the impact of a hospital-based CHW intervention versus usual care (UC) on (1) the percent who achieve LDL cholesterol goals, (2) adherence to the statin regimen, and (3) health outcomes including inflammatory markers and vascular function at 6 and 12 months after hospitalization for the premature CAD event. (Participants enrolled during the early phase of the recruitment will have an additional study visit at 24 months.) We will determine the cost of achieving the LDL-C goal in each group. Outcome measures include patient adherence (pill counts, modified Hill-Bone questionnaire), lipid parameters, hs-CRP, and brachial artery reactivity as a marker of endothelial function. Intention to treat analyses will be used. Multivariable adjusted analysis using generalized linear models or generalized estimating equations will be used to determine the independent effect of the interventions after adjusting for covariates. A sample size of 68 subjects per group can detect hypothesized differences in the proportion of participants meeting goal levels of LDL-C with 92% power, as the primary outcome at 1 years. This proposal will demonstrate the effectiveness of a potentially generalizable model of culturally competent care that will improve the use of statin therapy and its health outcomes in Black and white Americans with documented CAD and poor access to statin pharmacotherapy.