156136 Innovative methods to capture the work of promotores as patient educators and advocates in the care of diabetes management

Monday, November 5, 2007: 12:45 PM

Patricia J. Cantero, PhD , Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA
Luz Piña , Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA
Patricia Paez, MS , Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA
Caleb Arias , Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA
América Bracho, MPH, CDE , Latino Health Access, Santa Ana, CA
Using the community health worker (Promotor) model, Latino Health Access' 12-week diabetes self-management program has shown significant reduction in participants' A1C levels; however, this reduction diminishes or disappears over time. Promotores identified a need to create a program that would assist participants become more active in self-managing their diabetes beyond the 12-week class series. The diabetes extended care program was created and participants showed statistically significant reductions in A1C, lipids and blood pressure values. This presentation will focus on how Promotores were involved in the design and implementation of the extended care program as well as assisting in the development of process evaluation tools, including a web-based Promotor-friendly registry. More importantly, it will highlight the amount of work Promotores spend in achieving outcomes. Tools captured the intensity of Promotores' efforts, in hours of service, type of service (i.e., in-person and telephone contact) and area of focus, ranging from self-management to provider communication recommendations. Results showed that each participant, of the 255 enrolled, received on average 10 hours of services from Promotores, these included in-person visits, telephone intervention and reminder calls. These data show that in-person visits were the most time consuming, yet an indispensable component of the program. Discussion will also focus on the benefits and challenges that Promotores faced in documenting their efforts, using the web-based registry, and lessons learned to include Promotores' feedback on the design and implementation of the program.

Learning Objectives:
1.Identify at least 3 indicators that captures promotores efforts in assisting participants become more active in self-managing their diabetes. 2.List 2 methods that assist promotores document process data. 3.Discuss the benefits and the challenges of modifying evaluation tools during the implementation of a program.

Keywords: Community Health Promoters, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.