Implementation and success of nurse telephone counseling in linguistically isolated Korean American patients with high blood pressure

ObjectiveNurse telephone counseling can improve the management of chronic conditions, but the effectiveness of this approach in underserved populations is unclear. This study evaluated the use of bilingual nurse-delivered telephone counseling in Korean Americans (KAs) participating in a community-based intervention trial to improve management of hypertension.MethodsKAs were randomized to receive 12 months of hypertension-related telephone counseling that was more intensive (bi-weekly) or less intensive (monthly). Counseling logs were kept for 360 KAs who completed the pre- and post-intervention evaluations.ResultsThe overall success rate for the intervention was 80.3%. The level of success was significantly influenced by the dose of counseling, employment status, and years of US residence. Over the 12-month counseling period, both groups showed improvement with regard to medication-taking, alcohol consumption, and exercise but not smoking, with no significant group differences.ConclusionBilingual telephone counseling could reach monolingual KAs and improve their hypertension management behavior.Practice implicationsBilingual nurse telephone counseling may have wide applicability, serving as an effective means of disseminating evidence-based chronic disease management guidelines to a linguistically isolated community with limited health resources and information.