Public Health Relevance

This project, 'Peer Support for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction in Female Veterans', seeks to address the damaging health impacts of heart disease on women Veterans. Women Veterans are at increased risk for developing heart disease due to common issues like obesity, tobacco smoking, and mental health disorders. Current guidelines recommend engaging in certain health behaviors, such as eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise, to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease. This project will develop an intervention to reduce cardiovascular risk among female Veterans through the partnering of female Veterans (e.g. peers) to provide each other support to promote engagement in heart healthy behaviors. Women Veterans will be paired with another fellow female Veteran based on personal characteristics (e.g. age, service era, medical diagnoses) to support in each other in the pursuit of decreasing both Veteran's heart disease risk. The overarching goal of this project is to decrease heart disease among women Veterans.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Veterans Affairs (VA)
Type
Veterans Administration (IK2)
Project #
5IK2HX001540-05
Application #
10179470
Study Section
HSR&D Career Development Award (CDA0)
Project Start
2015-07-01
Project End
2020-06-30
Budget Start
2019-07-01
Budget End
2020-06-30
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2020
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Durham VA Medical Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
043241082
City
Durham
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27705
Goldstein, Karen M; Stechuchak, Karen M; Zullig, Leah L et al. (2017) Impact of Gender on Satisfaction and Confidence in Cholesterol Control Among Veterans at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease. J Womens Health (Larchmt) 26:806-814