1. Extending Advance Care Planning to Black Americans in the Community: A Pilot Study of the PREPARE Program.
- Author
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Skolarus, Lesli E., Brown, Devin L., Corches, Casey L., Reynolds, Evan, Bailey, Sarah, Mansour, Maria, Robles, Maria Cielito, Rice, Tia, Springer, Mellanie V., Burke, James F., and Sudore, Rebecca L.
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AFRICAN Americans , *PILOT projects , *HEALTH equity , *COMMUNITIES , *THEMATIC analysis - Abstract
Context: Advance care planning (ACP) is underutilized, especially among Black Americans. Yet, no ACP interventions have been tested at the community level.Objectives: Within an established academic and community partnership, we sought to determine whether ACP is a community-identified need and if so, to conduct a pilot study of an evidence-based ACP program, PREPARE (PrepareForYourCare.org).Methods: We conducted open discussions and in-depth interviews to determine the relevance of ACP to the community. We then conducted a pre- to 3-week postpilot study of a virtual peer facilitated brief session to introduce ACP and encourage participants to engage with PREPARE. We conducted thematic content analysis for qualitative data and used paired t-tests to assess within-participant changes in the validated ACP Engagement Survey measured on a 1-5 scale (5 = greatest engagement).Result: We conducted two discussion groups with community leaders (n = 12) and key informant interviews (n = 6), including leaders in aging, public health, health care and faith. We concluded that ACP is a community priority. In the pilot study, we enrolled 13 Black Americans; 85% were women and the mean age was 59.7 years (SD 15.1). There was a trend toward increased ACP engagement after the peer facilitated PREPARE (mean 3.2 (SD 0.6) pre vs. 3.5 (SD 0.6) post, paired t-test P = 0.06). All participants found the intervention to be acceptable and were satisfied with it.Conclusion: Community members identified ACP as important for their community. Peer facilitated PREPARE program is a promising community-based strategy to increase engagement in ACP and may promote health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2021
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