10 Local Black Churches & Sentara Partner To Fight High Blood Pressure

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Sentara Healthcare and 10 Black churches in Hampton Roads recently formed a partnership that aims to reduce high blood pressure, a silent killer that sits in many church pews every Sunday.

While more than 40 percent of all Blacks suffer from hypertension nationwide, according to the American Heart Association, the numbers are a bit higher (50 percent) at 2nd Calvary Baptist Church, one of the 10 Hampton Roads churches participating in the 18-month study funded by a $3.4 million, five-year NIH grant awarded to Sentara last year. Study participants will receive at-home blood pressure monitors, journals, as well as weekly reminders from a healthcare professional, who will review weekly data, phone calls, and make  medication and nutrition adjustments.

“Nearly 50 percent of my congregation has hypertension,” the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Guns told WTKR-TV in a recent interview. Guns’ church, 2nd Calvary Baptist in Norfolk,  is one of 10 Black congregations participating in the federally funded program, in Hampton Roads.

“When when you look across the city of Norfolk, Norfolk has a high preponderance of individuals with hypertension, and so if there’s a study that’s going to help you to one, understand the disease, two, give you strategies for controlling it and three, helping you live a healthier life, then it just makes sense that we would be a part of this study.”

Guns said he discovered heart disease was prevalent among his congregants when he stood in the pulpit one Sunday and asked, “How many of you have hypertension?”

Multiple hands shot up in the air. “After worship we are going to be signing up people for the hypertension study that we’re doing in conjunction with Sentara Healthcare,” Guns said.

2nd Calvary Baptist is one of 10 churches in Hampton Roads working with the new, federally funded Sentara Healthcare study that is managed by Iris Lundy, lead author of the study and vice president of Health Equity, at Sentara.

“We have people that are dying every day from high blood pressure or it’s leading to some other chronic disease,” Lundy said, in a recent statement on Sentara’s website.

“We certainly see there is a disparity or a difference between blood pressure being controlled and uncontrolled,” Lundy said. “Compare Black populations to White populations, and you have to ask, “What should we be doing differently?”

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John Brush, M.D., Sentara’s chief research officer, said church members have been very welcoming, speaking in a statement on Sentara’s website.

“Part of the receptiveness of these communities is because they know they’ve got an unmet need here,” Brush explained.

“I wish I had done this project 31 years ago when I came to this community because I would have been a better doctor all along,” Brush added. “I would have known much more about the patients and their neighborhoods and their community.”

In Hampton Roads, Sentara’s researchers plan to recruit a total of 360 participants, or 36 from each church. Participants will be divided into three tracks.

In the first, they will monitor their blood pressure at home and meet with a primary care physician while receiving frequent text reminders.

In the second, they will also have their blood pressure monitored remotely. A dedicated nurse practitioner will meet with them over six months to review, adjust medications, and make diet suggestions.

In the third, in addition to meeting with a physician and having their blood pressure monitored remotely, they will meet with a community health worker to address social and environmental issues that could be impacting blood pressure.

The study will compare the effectiveness of these three approaches while helping participants manage their own blood pressure.

“We’re excited about the hypertension study and all of the things that Sentara is doing to address health disparities, especially in the African-American community,” said the Rev. Dwight Riddick Sr. of Gethsemane Baptist Church in Newport News, which is one of the study partners.

“We’ve seen so many people who have had strokes and who are dealing with other health concerns,” Riddick said. “You can’t live your very best life if you’re not healthy.”

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The Rev. Jerry Holmes of Norfolk’s historic First Baptist Church on Bute Street said members of his congregation are excited to participate. He said hypertension is “something that they struggle with and want to see a remedy for.”

“We’re thankful for the opportunity. And we do look forward to continuing to partner to make healthier communities.”

Last year the Sentara Health Research Center was awarded a $3.4 million, five-year grant to study high blood pressure in underserved communities across Hampton Roads, the Center’s largest grant to date, according to a statement on its website.

As part of the study, Sentara is collaborating with Yale University, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Houston Methodist Hospital. Each health system is partnering with 10 community-based organizations or businesses in underserved communities, including churches, barbershops, and beauty salons. Sentara, Yale, Mass General, and Houston Methodist will then pool their data for analysis.

The 10 Black churches in Hampton Roads that are participating in the study are 2nd Calvary Baptist Church, Norfolk; New Hope Church of God in Christ, Norfolk; Mount Global Fellowship of Churches, Virginia Beach; Rehoboth Baptist Church, Virginia Beach; Faith Deliverance Christian Center, Norfolk; Historic First Baptist Church, Norfolk; Ebenezer Baptist Church, Virginia Beach; Gethsemane Baptist Church, Hampton; Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Temple, Hampton; and New Beech Grove Baptist Church, Newport News.