Key result
Worker-delivered health promotion yields only small cardiovascular risk factor reductions.
Why the study?
People with serious mental illness have unhealthy lifestyles, poor physical health, and high premature death rates that may be improved by health promotion interventions.
Does a brief health promotion intervention delivered by mental health key workers improve physical health in people with serious mental illness?
RCT
Does a brief health promotion intervention delivered by mental health key workers improve physical health in people with serious mental illness?
A brief health promotion intervention for people with serious mental illness produced small reductions in cardiovascular risk factors but insufficient overall health gains to justify standard implementation.
Brief key-worker intervention yields insufficient health gains for routine adoption in serious mental illness; challenges feasibility of low-intensity delivery without optimization.
Background: People with serious mental illness tend to have unhealthy lifestyles, poor physical health and high rates of premature death. These factors are potentially amenable to health promotion interventions. Such interventions are being developed but do not easily reach the most disabled clients.Aims: To measure whether a brief health promotion intervention delivered by mental health key workers can produce useful health gains in a population with serious mental illness.Method: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a particular health promotion package, using physiological and validated instruments to measure outcome.Results: The study population had a relatively unhealthy lifestyle at outset. The intervention produced some statistically significant reductions in cardiovascular risk factors but overall health gains were small. The drop out rate was high.Conclusions: People with serious mental illness are an appropriate target group for health promotion interventions. This intervention did not produce enough health gains to justify incorporation into standard care planning. A more intensive approach might achieve better outcomes.
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Brown et al. (2009) conducted an RCT in Serious mental illness. Brief health promotion intervention delivered by mental health key workers vs. Standard care was evaluated on Health gains measured by physiological and validated instruments. A brief health promotion intervention delivered by mental health key workers produced some statistically significant reductions in cardiovascular risk factors, but overall health gains were small.
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