Dallas-area black men have been getting more than just fades, buzzcuts and something off the top while visiting their local barbershop. As part of a public health intervention study, barbers in an intervention group of eight black-owned barbershops were trained to take customers blood pressure, and offered patrons a free reading with each cut while telling them a model story about real people getting their blood pressure under control. Customers with hypertension were advised to see their doctor or offered a referral if they didn t have one and if they hadn t seen a physician by their next visit, the barber would even make an appointment for them and promise a free haircut as a reward if the customer went. Patrons of a control group of nine barbershops, meanwhile, received standard hypertension pamphlets written for a broad audience. Ten months later, 20 percent of the 602 men in the intervention group and 10 percent of the 695 men in the control group had controlled their blood pressure with medication. Men in the intervention group had their average blood pressure drop by about 2.5 millimeters of mercury (mm/Hg) more than those at the control shops.
The study was published yesterday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross says that doubling the rate of blood pressure control with this fairly simple intervention seems quite worthwhile. Hypertension is a devastating, silent killer, and it s underdiagnosed and undertreated.
ACSH s Cheryl Martin notes that in the African-American community, the barbershop is often a social place. They re reaching a targeted population that won t go get checked at the Wal-Mart, won t go to the doctor, she says.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan says the study seems to be a good example of how non-medical professionals can be recruited into performing public health interventions. But study author Ronald G. Victor, M.D., says further study is needed to see if some of the financial incentives could be removed to make the strategy cost-effective on a larger scale. Barbers enrolled in the study were paid $3 for each recorded blood pressure, $10 for each physician referral and $50 for each customer who returned a card indicating they d seen a doctor.
