Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109966

Hongdao Meng, PhD, Department of Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University, HSC, Level 3, Rm071, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8338, 631-444-7281, homeng@notes.cc.sunysb.edu, Bruce Friedman, PhD, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 644, Rochester, NY 14642, Brenda R. Wamsley, PhD, Department of Social Work, West Virginia State University, 928 Wallace Hall, P.O. Box 1000, Institute, WV 25112, and Gerald Eggert, PhD, Executive Director, Monroe County Long Term Care Program, Inc, P.O. Box 429, East Rochester, NY 14445.

Hypertension is one of the most prevalent diseases among older adults. The Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration tested the effectiveness of a health promotion nurse intervention and a personal assistance voucher benefit among frail Medicare beneficiaries. Previous analysis found a significant beneficial nurse effect on functional status with similar total health care expenditures among rural participants over two years. This study examined the effect of the health promotion nurse intervention in the subgroup of participants with hypertension. We expected that participants in the nurse group would have less functional decline and lower health care expenditures than those in the control group because better hypertension control was one of the major objectives of the health promotion nurses intervention. The study sample consists of 89 participants (50 from the control group, 39 from the nurse group) who reported having hypertension at baseline and who have completed the two-year follow-up. We used linear regression model to predict the number of ADL dependence at the end of the follow-up period while controlling for baseline functional status and nurse intervention indicator variable. A similar model was used to examine the effect of the nurse on health care expenditures. We found a marginally significant nurse effect on ADL dependence. (p=0.07) Nurse seems to reduce health care expenditures but this effect was not significant. We conclude that the health promotion nurse intervention may reduce total health care expenditures while maintain the functional status for rural Medicare beneficiaries with hypertension.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Evaluate the impact of a health promotion nurse intervention on functional status and health care expenditures among rural Medicare beneficiaries with hypertension.

Keywords: Health Promotion, Chronic Diseases

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.