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Cardiovascular DiseasesNCT02991534

Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Vets

A study testing CV Toolkit Components in people with Cardiovascular Diseases and Hypertension, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 4 sites in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the number one cause of death in American women, and all adult women are potentially at risk for CV disease. There are clear gender differences in the control of CV risk factors such as lipids, blood pressure, and intermediate diabetes outcomes nationally and within the VA, with women… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older, women only
What is being tested?
CV Toolkit Components
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
6,009 participants
Where
4 sitesUnited States
Study dates
15 Nov 2016to 30 Sep 2020
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • Women only
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • For Patient Activities: Women VA patients with any cardiovascular risk factors
  • For Key Stakeholder Activities: VA staff affiliated with the Women's Health Clinic

Who cannot join

  • For Patient Activities: Men \& Patients with cognitive impairment precluding informed consent
  • For Key Stakeholder Activities: non- VA staff

Trial locations and contacts

4 sites in 1 country.

United States4 sites
  • South Texas Health Care System, San Antonio, TX

    San Antonio, Texas, 78229

  • VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA

    Sepulveda, California, 91343

  • VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven Campus, West Haven, CT

    West Haven, Connecticut, 06516

  • VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West Los Angeles, CA

    West Los Angeles, California, 90073

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans (QUE 15-272)

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the number one cause of death in American women, and all adult women are potentially at risk for CV disease. There are clear gender differences in the control of CV risk factors such as lipids, blood pressure, and intermediate diabetes outcomes nationally and within the VA, with women Veterans often at higher CV risk than their male counterparts. The combination of disparities and gender-specific CV risk factors suggest an urgent need for CV risk factor management in women Veterans. As one project in the Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER) QUERI, the objectives of "Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans" are to implement and evaluate a CV risk reduction toolkit (CV toolkit) designed to increase identification of CV risk among Women Veterans, enhance patient/provider communication about their risk, and increase Women Veterans' engagement and retention in relevant health services including referrals to key health programs (e.g., MOVE!, dieticians, health coaches, and CV specialists as needed). The initial CV Toolkit includes four components: (1) Patient education/activation tools including educational materials and a patient CV self-screener to help make CV risk discussion a priority for women before they enter the exam room; (2) A CV risk assessment computerized template to systematically capture CV disease risk factor history and data from the medical record and then facilitate referrals to Gateway to Healthy Living program and other CV risk reduction services/programs; (3) Provider information and education programs as well as referral tools to internal services; and (4) The Gateway to Healthy Living, a facilitated goal-setting group tailored for women Veterans. The goal is to implement the CV Toolkit at four VA facilities with comprehensive women's health clinics. The implementation of the CV Toolkit will be evaluated using a non-randomized stepped wedge design and will apply the evidence-based Replicating Effective Programs (REP) implementation strategy. For the nonrandomized stepped wedge design, each phase represents when one site moved from inactive to active implementation. It was pre-specified for the non-randomized design to evaluate the outcomes as the odds ratio of active intervention versus inactive for the overall study period and not by individual site/phase. This is a function of the use of the non-randomized design. Since the order of sites being introduced into the active intervention is not random, probabilistically the individual site results are not as meaningful here as they would be in a randomized stepped wedge design. Also, mixed methods implementation evaluations will focus on investigating primary implementation outcomes of adoption, acceptability, feasibility, and reach. Multilevel stakeholder engagement will be prioritized. Program-wide organizational-, provider-, and patient-level measures and tools will be utilized to enhance synergy, productivity, impact and facilitate spread.

Read the detailed description

Background: Women Veterans are the fastest growing segment of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) users. This dramatic growth has created challenges for VHA. Gender disparities persist in cardiovascular (CV) and diabetes risk factor control, and rates of depression, anxiety, and mental health comorbidity are disproportionately high among women Veterans. Furthermore, a high rate of women Veterans' attrition from VA care, along with organizational barriers to care, substantiate that organizational changes are needed in order to engage and retain women Veteran VHA users in evidence-based, patient-centered care.

Objectives: The Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER) QUERI addresses VHA Blueprint for Excellence Strategy 6, by advancing "personalized, proactive, patient-centered" care models, and Transformational Strategy 7.2.g by implementation of innovative care models in women Veterans' health care. The EMPOWER QUERI Program is designed to improve women Veterans' engagement and retention in evidence-based care for three high priority health conditions, i.e., prediabetes, cardiovascular, and mental health. To achieve this impact goal, we propose a cohesive portfolio of projects with the following aims: (1) To use an evidence-based implementation strategy that emphasizes local tailoring of care models, multilevel stakeholder engagement, and systematic evaluation of complex implementation processes in order to enrich organizational capacity for innovations in women Veterans' VHA health care; (2) To implement personalized, proactive, patient-centered innovations in VHA women's health that are acceptable, feasible, satisfactory, relevant, and effective for both providers and patients, thereby encouraging women Veterans' engagement and retention and sustainability of the innovations; and, (3) To generate implementation "playbooks" for our partners that are scalable and serve as guidance for future implementation of a broader array of evidence-based women's health programs and policy.

Methods: Three projects will be conducted by an experienced multidisciplinary team. "Tailoring VA's Diabetes Prevention Program to Women Veterans' Needs" is a one-year QI project to be conducted in VA Greater Los Angeles women's health clinics. Women Veterans with prediabetes will select an in-person, peer-led or online gender-specific, evidence-based diabetes prevention program to address their risk behaviors and health conditions. "Facilitating Cardiovascular Risk Screening and Risk Reduction in Women Veterans" will increase identification of CV risk among women Veterans, enhance patient/provider communication and shared decision-making about CV risk, and provide a supportive, coordinated health coaching intervention to facilitate women Veterans' engagement and retention in appropriate health services. "Implementation of Tailored Collaborative Care for Women Veterans" will evaluate implementation of an evidence-based collaborative care model tailored to enhance provider- and system-level capabilities to address women Veterans' anxiety and depression treatment needs, thereby improving organizational primary care-mental health integration (PC-MHI) effectiveness and women Veterans' engagement and retention in PC-MHI. Both implementation research studies will use a non-randomized stepped wedge design and will apply the evidence-based Replicating Effective Programs (REP) implementation strategy. For the nonrandomized stepped wedge design, each phase represents when one site moved from inactive to active implementation. It was pre-specified for the non-randomized design to evaluate the outcomes as the odds ratio of active intervention versus inactive for the overall study period and not by individual site/phase. This is a function of the use of the non-randomized design. Since the order of sites being introduced into the active intervention is not random, probabilistically the individual site results are not as meaningful here as they would be in a randomized stepped wedge design. Mixed methods implementation evaluations will focus on investigating primary implementation outcomes of adoption, acceptability, feasibility, and reach. Multilevel stakeholder engagement will be prioritized. Program-wide organizational-, provider-, and patient-level measures and tools will be utilized to enhance synergy, productivity, and impact. The original protocol proposes the administration of a follow-up survey that includes four secondary outcome measures (PROMIS Global Health; Patient Satisfaction; Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale (OASIS); and Depression Screen (PHQ-4)). However, the follow-up survey was not administered (data not collected) due to patient burden and COVID-19. As a coherent program of women's health implementation research and quality improvement, the proposed EMPOWER QUERI will constitute a major milestone in achieving BPE strategies and realizing women Veterans' engagement and, ultimately, empowerment in our VHA system.

Being tested
CV Toolkit Components
Keywords
Patient Participation [N05.300.150.600.620], Health Behavior [F01.145.488], Women [M01.975], Patient Satisfaction [N05.715.360.600], Physicians, Primary Care [M01.526.485.810.800], Physicians, Women [M01.526.485.810.820], Health Educators [M01.526.485.410], Cardiovascular Diseases [C14], Hypertension [C14.907.489], Hyperlipidemias [C18.452.584.500.500], Dyslipidemias [C18.452.584.500], Obesity [C18.654.726.500], Diabetes Mellitus [C18.452.394.750], Tobacco Use Disorder [C25.775.912], Overweight [C23.888.144.699]
Medical subject headings
Cardiovascular Diseases, Hypertension, Hyperlipidemias, Dyslipidemias, Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, Tobacco Use Disorder, Overweight

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • CV Toolkit ComponentsBehavioural

    • Patient completes a CV self screener.
    • Patient discusses CV risks factors with primary care providers and CV risks are documented and discussed for action steps and referrals.
    • Patient will be recommended to attend a gender tailored facilitated workgroup - Gateways to Healthy Living to make specific SMART goals and commit to patient preferred services or program
Study groups in NCT02991534
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Active implementation of the CV ToolkitExperimentalThe investigators will use a non-randomized stepped wedge design to evaluate the implementation in four VA Women's Practice Based Research Network sites. In this design, the intervention is "turned on" when a primary care provider at the site first engages in the Cardiovascular (CV) Toolkit (i.e. uses a CV screening template which maps to the patient CV self-screener). This design relies on sequential roll-out to participating sites over time, while using other sites as controls until they begin implementation. - The non-randomized design explicitly considers the timing of implementation spread and addresses the statistical issues introduced by lack of randomization in implementation starts and processes. The investigators will analytically compensate for the design by collecting patient-, provider-, and site-level data that may be associated with timing of the adoption of each intervention.
Receives: Behavioral: CV Toolkit Components

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. New Participation in MOVE! (Among Women Aged 65 and Older)

    The study utilized a non-randomized stepped wedge design, and in this design, there are two arms: the not-active CV Toolkit arm and the active ("turned on") CV Toolkit arm. All five sites were in both arms at some point in the study period. The determination of when a study was in a particular arm was determined using the non-randomized step wedge design. In this design, all sites begin in the not-active arm and then cross-over to the active arm at a time when they are organized to do so (not a random event). In the non-randomized stepped wedge design (which is very similar to the crossover clinical trial) results are not analyzed separately by arm as is done for standard randomized controlled trials. The analysis also considered stratification of the women by age (< and ≥ 65 years of age). The main outcomes examined participation in MOVE! and HPDP and/or CIH services for each age strata.

    Measured: 46 months

  2. New Participation in MOVE! (Among Women Less Than 65 Years Old)

    The study utilized a non-randomized stepped wedge design, and in this design, there are two arms: the not-active CV Toolkit arm and the active ("turned on") CV Toolkit arm. All five sites were in both arms at some point in the study period. The determination of when a study was in a particular arm was determined using the non-randomized step wedge design. In this design, all sites begin in the not-active arm and then cross-over to the active arm at a time when they are organized to do so (not a random event). In the non-randomized stepped wedge design (which is very similar to the crossover clinical trial) results are not analyzed separately by arm as is done for standard randomized controlled trials. The analysis also considered stratification of the women by age (< and ≥ 65 years of age). The main outcomes examined participation in MOVE! and HPDP and/or CIH services for each age strata.

    Measured: 46 months

  3. Participation in HPDP/CIH Programs (Among Women Aged 65 and Older)

    The study utilized a non-randomized stepped wedge design, and in this design, there are two arms: the not-active CV Toolkit arm and the active ("turned on") CV Toolkit arm. All five sites were in both arms at some point in the study period. The determination of when a study was in a particular arm was determined using the non-randomized step wedge design. In this design, all sites begin in the not-active arm and then cross-over to the active arm at a time when they are organized to do so (not a random event). In the non-randomized stepped wedge design (which is very similar to the crossover clinical trial) results are not analyzed separately by arm as is done for standard randomized controlled trials. The analysis also considered stratification of the women by age (< and ≥ 65 years of age). The main outcomes examined participation in MOVE! and HPDP and/or CIH services for each age strata.

    Measured: 46 months

  4. Participation in HPDP/CIH Programs (Among Women Less Than 65 Years Old)

    The study utilized a non-randomized stepped wedge design, and in this design, there are two arms: the not-active CV Toolkit arm and the active ("turned on") CV Toolkit arm. All five sites were in both arms at some point in the study period. The determination of when a study was in a particular arm was determined using the non-randomized step wedge design. In this design, all sites begin in the not-active arm and then cross-over to the active arm at a time when they are organized to do so (not a random event). In the non-randomized stepped wedge design (which is very similar to the crossover clinical trial) results are not analyzed separately by arm as is done for standard randomized controlled trials. The analysis also considered stratification of the women by age (< and ≥ 65 years of age). The main outcomes examined participation in MOVE! and HPDP and/or CIH services for each age strata.

    Measured: 46 months

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted13 Dec 2016 (estimated)
  2. Study start15 Nov 2016
  3. Primary completion30 Sep 2020
  4. Study completion30 Sep 2020

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Health services research
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Sequential
Model description
The implementation of the CV Toolkit will be evaluated using a non-randomized stepped wedge design
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
6,009 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02991534
Sponsor's protocol ID
QUX 16-007
Status last verified
Feb 2025
First submitted
9 Dec 2016
Last updated
3 Mar 2025
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • Farmer MM, Hamilton AB, Finley EP, Lee ML, Chanfreau C, Than C, Brunner J, Schweizer CA, Moin T, Bean-Mayberry B. Implementation of a cardiovascular toolkit in primary care increased women Veterans' engagement in behavior change programs: results from a non-randomized stepped wedge trial. BMC Prim Care. 2026 Jan 8;27(1):95. doi: 10.1186/s12875-025-03158-5.

    PubMed 41507799
  • Farmer MM, Hamilton AB, Finley EP, Lee M, Chanfreau C, Than C, Brunner J, Schweizer CA, Huynh AK, Moin T, Bean-Mayberry B. Implementation of a cardiovascular toolkit in primary care increased women Veterans' engagement in behavior change programs: results from a non-randomized stepped wedge trial. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2024 Nov 26:rs.3.rs-5347756. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5347756/v1.

    PubMed 39649163
  • Clair KS, Bean-Mayberry B, Schweizer CA, Chanfreau C, Jackson L, Than CT, Finley EP, Hamilton A, Farmer MM. Factors Associated with Delayed Care Among Women Veterans Actively Engaged in Primary Care. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2024 May;33(5):604-612. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2023.0227. Epub 2024 Feb 21.

    PubMed 38386795
  • Finley EP, Huynh AK, Farmer MM, Bean-Mayberry B, Moin T, Oishi SM, Moreau JL, Dyer KE, Lanham HJ, Leykum L, Hamilton AB. Periodic reflections: a method of guided discussions for documenting implementation phenomena. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2018 Nov 27;18(1):153. doi: 10.1186/s12874-018-0610-y.

    PubMed 30482159
  • Hamilton AB, Farmer MM, Moin T, Finley EP, Lang AJ, Oishi SM, Huynh AK, Zuchowski J, Haskell SG, Bean-Mayberry B. Enhancing Mental and Physical Health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER): a protocol for a program of research. Implement Sci. 2017 Nov 7;12(1):127. doi: 10.1186/s13012-017-0658-9.

    PubMed 29116022

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing CV Toolkit Components in people with Cardiovascular Diseases and Hypertension, run by VA Office of Research and Development at 4 sites in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 2 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 3 Mar 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 4 sites in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 3 Mar 2025). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

New Participation in MOVE! (Among Women Aged 65 and Older) (time frame: 46 months). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02991534, which also lists 5 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 3 Mar 2025.

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