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Description

Purpose: The Jefferson Heart Health (JHH) program utilizes student health coaching by trained undergraduate and medical students supporting patients to sustain lifestyle changes and subsequently determine: how can we effectively educate patients by improving adherence to lifestyle recommendations? Also, what is the effectiveness of student-delivered health coaching for reducing patient cardiovascular risk? With our unique student-delivered program, we promote cost-effective lifestyle interventions for lowering overall cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden.

Methods: We successfully completed a four-week pilot with consistent patient attendance. Certified student JHH coaches, supervised by the certified obesity-management specialist and principal investigator, met weekly with 23 patients: 82.6% female/17.4% male, a mean age of 56, and a mean BMI of 34. Our program involves interactive 15-20 minute lessons based on the American Heart Association (AHA) “Life’s Essential Eight.” These group lessons are then supplemented by the novel PennDitti app that tracks real-time adherence as patients listen to three minute audio summaries of each lesson. Patient CVD risk was assessed at the beginning and end of the program using Framingham and PREVENT equations along with metabolic endpoints, including blood pressure, cholesterol, and A1C levels. Data analysis is ongoing.

Results: We will report our final data analysis in the poster that I hypothesize will demonstrate lower CVD risk burdens for JHH patient participants.

Conclusion: With students serving as medical extenders, our pilot JHH coaching program demonstrates successful implementation of an accessible and low-cost methodology to deliver evidence-based knowledge that improves health outcomes for underserved patients in Philadelphia.

Publication Date

2-2-2026

Keywords

motivational interviewing, medical education, cardiovascular risk, Framingham, A1C

Disciplines

Cardiology | Medical Education | Medicine and Health Sciences | Public Health Education and Promotion

Comments

Presented at the 2026 AOA Research Symposium.

Jefferson Heart Health (JHH): A Successful Student-delivered Motivational Interviewing Pilot Program to Lower Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk

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