# Hypertension Self-management in Refugees Living in San Diego

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2022 · $176,400

## Abstract

Project Summary
The proposed Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is to provide the
candidate with training and research experiences that will promote her development as an independent
clinician-researcher, with particular emphasis in the field of intervention research addressing hypertension
control, specifically self-management (home blood pressure monitoring and self-titration of medications) as a
tool to deal with cardiovascular disparities related to displacement in refugees. This training will provide her
with the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills in: 1) hypertension epidemiology and disparities focusing
on migration as a social determinant of health,; 2) acquire knowledge in the theory, development,
implementation, and adaptation of theoretically driven community-based interventions to improve blood
pressure (BP) control through self-management; 3) acquire skills in qualitative (social network analysis)
multilevel modeling of longitudinal data to assess the efficacy of interventions and hypertension self-
management clinical trials. Training activities will include didactic coursework and specific workshops, directed
readings, one-on-one tutorials with mentors, and instructions in the responsible conduct of research that
focuses on vulnerable populations. The candidate will capitalize on her previous clinical and research
experience with refugees, and leverage mentorship from a Training Committee comprised of globally
renowned experts in the fields of CVD disparities, community interventions, hypertension trials, social
determinants of immigrant health, and advanced biostatistics. The present K23 research project emerges from
the existing research infrastructure and extensive experience of her mentors’ self-management trials in CVD
disparities, epidemiological research and clinical trials, to carve out a niche for me to specialize in CVD clinical
trials and prevention in refugees and vulnerable immigrants. The specific aims are to conduct a structured
feasibility study through: 1) Understanding knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to self-management of
hypertension among refugees; 2) Developing, adapting and implementing a culturally-sensitive hypertension
self-management intervention in refugees in San Diego; and 3) Identifying factors affecting the feasibility and
acceptability of such an intervention to estimate effect sizes and outcome measures to be used in a future
powered trial. This work will lay strong foundations for the first powered randomized clinical trial of refugee
hypertension self-management ever conducted. While the specified initial goal of this work is to adapt an
evidence-based hypertension self-management intervention model adapted from recent large clinical trials, we
hypothesize that this intervention will be feasible in refugees; they can do it, accept it and give us leads on
designing a future clinical trial to learn more about CVD disparities science and implementatio...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10449102
- **Project number:** 5K23HL148530-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Tala Al-Rousan
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $176,400
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-06-01 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10449102

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10449102, Hypertension Self-management in Refugees Living in San Diego (5K23HL148530-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10449102. Licensed CC0.

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