Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus
Conditions
Keywords
Emergency Medical Services, Elderly
Brief summary
Older adults living in subsidized housing report poorer health. Their age and low income make it harder for them to use community services. Many older adults have heart disease and diabetes, which lead to frequent emergency calls and hospital admissions. To decrease the costs of treating heart disease and diabetes through emergency and hospitalization, improved screening and health education is needed. Our program will take place in communal areas within housing buildings of older adults and deliver a heart disease, diabetes, and falls risk check-up with health education. This is expected to improve the health of older adults leading to fewer emergency calls and hospital visits.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALCHAP-EMS/CP@clinic
Community Paramedicine program to assess cardiovascular, diabetes, and fall risk; discuss lifestyle changes and goals; and refer to appropriate resources.
Sponsors
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization
McMaster University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
55 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 55 years and older * Resides in subsidized apartment building
Exclusion criteria
\- None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Canadian Diabetes Risk (CANRISK) Score | Baseline and 1 year | The CANRISK tool provides a 10-year risk of diabetes score and will be administered by the paramedic during the CHAP-EMS session. |
| Change in Blood Pressure | Baseline and after each assessment (up to one year) | Since the participants are invited to attend the intervention weekly, but are not required to attend, the number of assessments and time of assessments will vary. Multilevel analysis will be conducted that accounts for this variance in repeated measures. |
| Change in health perceptions, behaviours, and knowledge of resources | Baseline and 1 year | A face-to-face survey will be administered to determine participant health perceptions, behaviours, and knowledge. |
| Change in Health Care Utilization | Baseline and 1 year | Health Care Utilization will be assessed through administrative databases (e.g. hospital visits). Utilization by residents in the intervention apartment buildings will be compared to baseline and compared to the control apartment buildings. |
| Change in rate of EMS Calls | Baseline and 1 year | Rate EMS calls by residents in the intervention apartment buildings will be compared to baseline and compared to the control apartment buildings. |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed