Center for Global Health faculty to jointly lead interventional study aimed at reducing high blood pressure in Tanzanian communities

Dr. Jennifer Downs and Dr. Robert Peck, Associate Professors of Medicine at the Center for Global Health, received National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute funding for a 5-year R01 grant focused on reducing community-wide blood pressure levels in rural Tanzanian communities. The study will be conducted in partnership with the Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit (MITU) and Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza, Tanzania. Drs. Downs and Peck have a history of successful collaborations and strong partnerships with Tanzanian faculty and institutes that make a community-based project like this one possible.

Elevated blood pressure is a leading global risk factor for early mortality. In Tanzania, 28% of adults above age 35 have hypertension, but only 2% are aware of the diagnosis and 1% are on appropriate treatment. Disparities in awareness about and treatment for hypertension are particularly pronounced in rural Tanzanian communities. Small reductions in community-wide blood pressure have been shown to lead to large decreases in risk of premature cardiovascular death in a community. In this study, Dr. Downs and Dr. Peck aim to reduce blood pressure in rural Tanzanian communities through partnerships with highly respected religious leaders to promote healthy behavior in rural communities. Religious leaders will be trained to educate about blood pressure, perform blood pressure screenings, and provide basic counseling and referral to community members. The study hypothesis is that empowering religious leaders to engage their communities about high blood pressure will improve health behaviors and consequently reduce the average community systolic blood pressure. 

To test this hypothesis, the study team will conduct a cluster randomized trial in 20 villages in northwest Tanzania. Half of the villages will receive the Religious Engagement in Health Intervention to equip religious leaders to teach about and measure blood pressure. The primary study outcome is community systolic blood pressure, which will be compared between intervention and control villages. The study team is currently adapting and pilot-testing the existing Religious Engagement in Health Intervention to address blood pressure prior to its implementation in the trial later this year.

The novel approach of this study has significant potential to improve community health. If successful, this intervention could prevent thousands of cardiovascular-related Tanzanian deaths. Implementation of this study is made possible by the well-established relationship between cardiovascular researchers across Weill Cornell Medicine, MITU, and Weill Bugando.  These institutions have a strong history of fruitful research partnerships with regional and district health leaders, religious leaders, primary care clinics, and local implementation advisory committees.