Hypertension Treatment in Barbershops

This program uses barbershops as a site for community health promotion programming targeting hypertension in African American men in low-income communities. The program offers free blood pressure screening and education at African American-owned barbershops. Participants with high blood pressure are provided with individualized blood pressure report cards and referred to community physicians. Men who return to the barbershop with a report card signed by their health care provider receive an incentive. Barbers involved in the program serve as peer-educators, sharing stories depicting successful risk reduction strategies adopted by customers or other members of the target community.

The goal of this program is to reduce blood pressure among African American men.

A non-randomized feasibility study design was used to determine if the intervention program of continuous blood pressure monitoring and peer-based health messaging in a barbershop lowers blood pressure Blood pressure decreased significantly in the intervention group but was unchanged in the comparison group (p < 0.0001). Hypertension treatment and control increased significantly (p's < 0.001) in the intervention group, but remained unchanged in the comparison group. Barbers trained in the intervention demonstrated a high degree of intervention fidelity.