WISEWOMAN Program Locations
Minnesota

Background: Minnesota Department of Health was funded as a standard project in June 2004.

Lifestyle Intervention: Lifestyle counselors assess relay and interpret screening results, assess dietary habits and physical activity level, and highlight the relationships between health status and lifestyle practices in a risk reduction discussion. Using the lifestyle assessment as a backdrop, they assess readiness to change. All women receive basic intervention services. Those with elevated risk who are ready to change are encouraged to participate in an active intervention by choosing from a menu of intervention support options or by establishing their own goals and action steps. Women receive at least two follow-up phone calls and mailings.

Screening: Clinical measurements include blood pressure, cholesterol (HDL, LDL, and total), triglycerides, glucose, and body mass index. Providers also assess other chronic disease risk factors: personal cardiovascular history, family history of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and smoking status.

Sites: Minnesota currently offers WISEWOMAN services at clinics located primarily in community clinics in low socioeconomic areas of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. The program is also offered at several rural clinics that have access to and serve high proportions of very underserved populations.

Key Partners: Minnesota’s BCCEDP program; other areas in the Department of Health’s Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Division, including Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, Diabetes, and Aging and Arthritis. We are working to develop collaborative efforts with the American Heart Association, Steps to a Healthier Minnesota, and University of Minnesota Extension Services.

For more information, please contact: Patricia Barney, MPH SagePlus Program Phone: (651) 556–0672 E-mail: Patricia.barney@state.mn.us Anne Kukowski, J.D. WISEWOMAN Program Director Phone: (651) 201–5615 E-mail: anne.kukowski@state.mn.us

Program Highlights

Direct Services

• The Minnesota WISEWOMAN program, SagePlus, provides services at 17 clinics. It conducted 2,370 screenings during the 2009–2010 reporting period, exceeding its screening goal by 38%.¹
• The Minnesota WISEWOMAN program, SagePlus, conducted 2,193 lifestyle intervention sessions during the 2009–2010 reporting period.

Partnerships

• The Minnesota WISEWOMAN program, SagePlus, has addressed one of the major challenges all WISEWOMAN programs face, which is fostering policy or environmental changes that help women sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors beyond their participation in the lifestyle intervention. When serving on the Minnesota Department of Health's Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention steering committee and a planning group for the state's health reform, the WISEWOMAN program director promoted the concepts of preventive services, lifestyle interventions, and self-management. This resulted in the WISEWOMAN philosophy being included in the Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention strategic plan. It also resulted in one of the options on the slate of interventions offered as part of the Statewide Health Improvement Program grants, which were funded as part of the state’s health reform, being modeled after the Minnesota WISEWOMAN lifestyle intervention.

Evaluation

• Motivational Interviewing focuses on behavior change, and it is a key component of the Minnesota WISEWOMAN program's lifestyle intervention, Smart Choices. The WISEWOMAN program is planning an intensive evaluation to ensure the quality of the motivational interviewing component. The evaluation will examine how effectively lifestyle interventionists assess and promote clients’ readiness to change. Trained observers will use a validated tool to record skills demonstrated by each interventionist during one session. The evaluation results will inform the need for any programmatic revisions in professional development, patient flow, or other areas.

Reference

1. Data are reported from the preliminary WISEWOMAN Minimum Data Elements report (October 2010). Screening includes any WISEWOMAN-funded screening (blood pressure, cholesterol, or diabetes) provided from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010. Lifestyle interventions refer to the number of lifestyle intervention sessions conducted from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.