Heart healthy integrative nutritional counseling (H2INC): Creating a Chinese medicine + western medicine patient education curriculum for Chinese Americans.
Evelyn Y Ho, Joseph Acquah, Cewin Chao and 10 others
PMID 30126680WHAT IT FOUND
A bilingual guide for Chinese American patients with cardiovascular disease blends Chinese medicine food ideas with heart healthy advice.
Patients said it was familiar and would help health decisions, but this work only created and refined the guide.
Key findings
01The guide was built by merging Chinese medicine food categories with biomedical advice to reduce salt, fat, and processed foods.
02Providers raised possible food-drug interactions, especially black fungus and leafy green vegetables with blood thinning drugs such as warfarin.
03Patients said the draft guide was familiar and would help health decisions, and they liked the hot/cold self-assessment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used a convenience sample of small numbers of Chinese medicine experts, providers, and Chinese American patients from a single geographic region. The guide was developed through subjective consensus and local expert opinion because there was no existing systematic method for integrating Chinese medicine and biomedical nutrition. The results may not apply to all Chinese Americans in the U.S. because immigration patterns and food practices vary by region. This paper does not test whether the guide improves cardiovascular outcomes, patient behavior, or communication.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a conflicts-of-interest declaration. Publication types list NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that the guide improves blood pressure, cholesterol, or medication use. It reports development and stakeholder feedback from small groups, not a tested intervention.