Giving Compass' Take:

• Across Los Angeles, 52 barbershops are helping hypertensive individuals receive better health care by hosting patients inside their shops while trained pharmacists check their blood pressure and provide medical attention. The patrons of this program were overwhelmingly positive about the health care they received during this program. 

• How can health practitioners work to make their offices feel safe and relaxing for all of their patients? 

• Read about the case for getting digital health care to make things easier and accessible for patients. 

All healthcare requires collaboration between providers and patients, but chronic disease management demands particularly high levels of patient engagement over an extended period of time.

Hypertension affects African American men at higher rates than other segments of the population, due to a range of factors including stress related to racism, poor understanding of hypertension, mistrust of the healthcare system, and lack of access to healthcare and medication.

In the Cedars-Sinai pilot, 52 barbershops across Los Angeles, representing 319 hypertensive patrons who chose to participate, were divided into test and “active control” groups. In test locations, barbers encouraged hypertensive patrons to meet with a specially-trained pharmacist, who visited the barbershop weekly to prescribe blood pressure medication (with involvement of patrons’ doctors), check patrons’ progress with the drug regime, and adjust it as needed to suit their personal circumstances. In control locations, barbers simply encouraged health behavior change and doctor check-ups.

The test intervention results, recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, were remarkably positive. After six months, patrons who had received health promotion and encouragement from their barbers coupled with pharmacist-led drug therapy were more likely to have achieved and maintained a drop in blood pressure than those who had received health promotion and encouragement alone.

By creating a respectful care process, and involving people and places the patrons already trusted. The intervention took place in a setting that was familiar and meaningful to the participating patrons. Information and encouragement came from the barber—someone they knew, and with whom they may already have been in the habit of discussing personal matters.

Read the full article about barber healthcare by Rebecca Fogg at Christensen Institute