We're in!

Abstract

The Community Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities is a three-year project that aimed to improve the health status of HIV-positive patients and increase the delivery of health promotion services to African Americans and low-income Latino adults. The project focused on providing home-based adherence support and health promotion services, including HIV/AIDS counseling and case management services, for more than 100 HIV/AIDS patients. The PACT project developed a community health worker training syllabus, patient education and counseling curriculum, and an operations manual. An evaluation was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including pre/post tests, interviews, surveys, and the review of medical records. Process measures included the number of new enrollments, program retention rates, and patients' self-reports about medication adherence and medical visits. Outcome measures included the health status of HIV/AIDS patients as indicated by HIV viral load and number of T cells, and health care utilization patterns before and after the program. The evaluation found the health condition and behavior of the patients improved as a result of the program. Specifically, 151 patients had an average increase of 83 T cells and a decrease in median HIV viral load. There was a 35 percent reduction in the overall medical expenditures among the patients as compared to the projected value, based on the annual growth rate of 7 percent. In addition, patients were found to have improved their medication adherence by about 25 percent over time, with 60 percent of patients showing an adherence rate of 90 percent or higher. The PACT model is being replicated in 26 clinics of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Related NPA Goals:

• Increased awareness, education and outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health & other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)

Related Healthy People 2010 Objectives:

• 1-3 Increase the proportion of persons appropriately counseled about health behaviors
• 7-8 Increase the proportion of patients who report that they are satisfied with the patient education they receive from their health care organization
• 13-7 Increase the number of HIV-positive persons who know their serostatus
• 13-14 Reduce deaths from HIV infection