Evaluation of a cardiovascular education intervention with motivational text messaging among West African immigrants

Abstract

Although West African Immigrants (WAIs) make up a small percentage of the immigrant population in the United States (U.S.), their overall numbers are growing, doubling every decade since 1970.1 AWIs includes individuals from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, and Tanzania. The American Community Survey 2015 revealed WAIs in the U.S. account for 327, 000 from Nigeria, 155,000 from Ghana, 28,000 from Tanzania, and 22,000 from Togo.1 WAIs were previously thought to develop CVD and/or risk factors such as diabetes type 2 (DMT2) only after migrating to the U.S.2 However, more recent findings demonstrate cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS), (a constellation of. hypertension, dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, and obesity) is prevalent in west Africa.2 In fact, WAIs were found to have worse CMS than African Americans.2 Moreover, many WAI are undiagnosed prior to U.S. arrival and are unaware they have CVD risk factors or CMS.3 Thus, WAIs are a vulnerable population for CVD, particularly in the areas of CVD risk knowledge and behavior.