• Hossein Zare, Chidinma A Ibe, Manshu Yang, Gayle Porter, Marilyn Gaston, Nicole Jones, Wehmah Jones, Vivienne Rose, Michele Balamani, Denise L Woods, and Darrell J Gaskin.
• Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. hzare1@jhu.edu.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2023 Oct 1; 38 (13): 287928872879-2887.

BackgroundThe Prime Time Sister Circles®, a randomized controlled trial (PTSC-RCT), assessed the impact of a community-based peer support program on hypertension management among African American women 40-75 years of age. While the PTSC-RCT was designed to evaluate changes in blood pressure control, subsequent sub-analyses revealed a high proportion of self-reported depressive symptoms in our sample. Accordingly, we conducted an ancillary investigation of the PTSC intervention on depression to ascertain its impact on reduced depressive symptoms in the study population.MethodDepressive symptoms were measured using an adapted version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale Revised (CES-D-10). We used unadjusted and adjusted fixed effect models. Data for this study came from the PTSC-RCT. We collected data between 2017 and 2018 in Washington, DC. We used a balanced analytical sample of 172 African American, English-speaking women between 40 to 75 years old with uncontrolled hypertension.InterventionThe intervention group participated in a 2-h, peer-based support group once a week for 13 weeks. A trained PTSC facilitator facilitated sessions with experts who delivered content on various topics, including psychosocial wellness (e.g., stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety management, and self-esteem), physical health (e.g., hypertension, inflammation, and heart disease), physical activity, and healthy nutrition.ResultsResults from the fixed-effects models indicated that participants in the PTSC program exhibited a greater reduction in CES-D-10 score at three months (Coeff: -1.99, 95% CI: -3.49, -0.49) and at 15 months (Coeff: -2.38, 95% CI: -3.94, -0.83), as compared to those in the control group.ConclusionsEvidence suggests that the Prime Time Sister Circles® intervention reduced depressive symptoms among African American women with low socioeconomic status and hypertension.Trial RegistrationNCT04371614.© 2023. The Author(s).

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