Reading a comic book may improve the health of hypertension patients, or at least that’s the goal of a new study at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in three U.S. adults, or approximately 75 million people, have high blood pressure. However, only 54 percent of them have it under control.
The ‘Cardiac Crusaders’ graphic novel was created to help improve the health of hypertension patients.
“The Cardiac Crusaders,” a graphic novel written and illustrated by a small VUMC team, will be used to help improve health literacy among African-American male patients between the ages of 16 and 35 who have been diagnosed with hypertension. For six months, nurse researchers will follow 15 patients who enroll in the study.
“We have a large population of hypertensives in young black men and we have the data of poor follow-up and poor blood pressure control. So, the question was, are there tools that can be used to control, to convince, to treat them to be more interested in their blood pressure? And we had this kind of ‘aha’ moment — to come up with a graphic novel/comic book concept around blood pressure, superheroes and blood pressure medicines and villains,” said Andre’ Churchwell, MD, professor of Cardiology, Chief Diversity Officer at VUMC and the graphic novel’s illustrator.
“We know there is a renewed interest in comic books and the action concept. So, we took the idea of translating blood pressure medication in the characters, superhero characters, and creating some level of action for a story, but imbedded in the action and the story are lessons about blood pressure,” Churchwell said.
Read more about the Cardiac Crusaders here. Article courtesy of VUMC.