Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Vets

Plain-language summary

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the number one cause of death in American women, and all adult women are potentially at risk for CV disease. There are clear gender differences in the control of CV risk factors such as lipids, blood pressure, and intermediate diabetes outcomes nationally and within the VA, with women Veterans often at higher CV risk than their male counterparts. The combination of disparities and gender-specific CV risk factors suggest an urgent need for CV risk factor management in women Veterans. As one project in the Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER) QUERI, the objectives of "Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans" are to implement and evaluate a CV risk reduction toolkit (CV toolkit) designed to increase identification of CV risk among Women Veterans, enhance patient/provider communication about their risk, and increase Women Veterans' engagement and retention in relevant health services including referrals to key health programs (e.g., MOVE!, dieticians, health coaches, and CV specialists as needed). The initial CV Toolkit includes four components: (1) Patient education/activation tools including educational materials and a patient CV self-screener to help make CV risk discussion a priority for women before they enter the exam room; (2) A CV risk assessment computerized template to systematically capture CV disease risk factor history and data from the medical record and then facilitate referrals to Gateway to Healthy Living program and other CV risk reduction services/programs; (3) Provider information and education programs as well as referral tools to internal services; and (4) The Gateway to Healthy Living, a facilitated goal-setting group tailored for women Veterans. The goal is to implement the CV Toolkit at four VA facilities with comprehensive women's health clinics. The implementation of the CV Toolkit will be evaluated using a non-randomized stepped wedge design and will apply the evidence-based Replicating Effective Programs (REP) implementation strategy. For the nonrandomized stepped wedge design, each phase represents when one site moved from inactive to active implementation. It was pre-specified for the non-randomized design to evaluate the outcomes as the odds ratio of active intervention versus inactive for the overall study period and not by individual site/phase. This is a function of the use of the non-randomized design. Since the order of sites being introduced into the active intervention is not random, probabilistically the individual site results are not as meaningful here as they would be in a randomized stepped wedge design. Also, mixed methods implementation evaluations will focus on investigating primary implementation outcomes of adoption, acceptability, feasibility, and reach. Multilevel stakeholder engagement will be prioritized. Program-wide organizational-, provider-, and patient-level measures and tools will be utilized to enhance synergy, productivity, impact and facilitate spread.

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