A project led by Professor Nicola Thomas at London South Bank University is exploring innovative ways in which people of black Asian and minority ethnic heritage can have their blood pressure checked. As a kidney nurse, Nicola believes that healthcare professionals need to think of new ways of reaching people who don’t traditionally attend the NHS for care.
A project led by Professor Nicola Thomas at London South Bank University is exploring innovative ways in which people of black Asian and minority ethnic heritage can have their blood pressure checked. As a kidney nurse, Nicola believes that healthcare professionals need to think of new ways of reaching people who don’t traditionally attend the NHS for care.
Why barbershops?
Barbershops are open long hours, are located in all communities and are often frequented by men of BAME heritage. This makes barbershops ideal, novel settings for addressing health disparities. Literature concludes that barbershops and hairdressers are promising settings for reaching populations most at risk for health disparities and barbershops have already been used in the UK to promote mental health and HIV awareness.
A barbershop project that took place in Los Angeles had promising results. Here they ran from 2016 to 2018 and 63.6% of people found to have high blood pressure ending the study with healthy levels (<130/80 mm Hg).
Reference - A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Blood-Pressure Reduction in Black Barbershops - PubMed (nih.gov)
Why worry about high blood pressure?
High blood pressure affects around 30% of men and accounts for more than one in 10 visits to GPs. High blood pressure contributes to 75,000 deaths every year as around half of those with high blood pressure either do not know it, or do not have it managed well. High blood pressure can lead to strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease
Where are the barbershops who are taking part?
In south London, barbers in Croydon, Mitcham, Thornton Heath, Bromley and South Norwood are taking part in the scheme, which began in April 2021. The Croydon BME Forum and Off The Record have longstanding links with the barbers (the BAME barber network) and ensure that they remain engaged in the project by supporting them in person and by WhatsApp.
"It is the trusting relationship that customers have with their barbers that is so important - we need to take healthcare out into the community." (Prof. Nicola Thomas)
So where are we now?
Six months in we have trained the barbers both online and in person; we have developed resources for the barbers to use and we have started collecting blood pressure readings that the barbers are taking. We have of course been challenged by COVID - the problems we are facing are reduced footfall of clients in the barbershop, and then starting the discussions with clients. We have come across some hesitancy from the clients as soon as they realise the readings the barbers take need to be written down. Despite assuring the clients that we are not taking their names this is a challenging area that we are trying to overcome.
So what next?
We now need to think about the ongoing sustainability of the project particularly setting up a network with other organisations that are interested in working with us. We need to find out what happens once clients have high blood pressure recorded and where they seek help. We've encouraged clients with high blood pressure to visit the well-being centre in Croydon, but we have no way of knowing if they turn up there or indeed if they visit their GP.