Development and Testing of a Research Ethics Curriculum for Community Health Workers

The community health worker (CHW) model has been used as a successful strategy for promoting health in underserved populations for decades. It has also become a popular model for community-based health promotion research studies. However, there are no resources widely available for training CHWs in ethical research practices when working with community members. In response to this need, a culturally sensitive research ethics curriculum was developed and tested specifically for Latino CHWs. Development of the Project TRES (Training in Research Ethics and Standards) curriculum was done with a panel of experts in Latino culture, health research with underserved communities, and protection of human subjects in community settings. In addition, six focus groups with project managers and principal investigators (n = 11) were conducted to review draft versions of the curriculum. A beta version of the curriculum was tested with 10 female CHWs from the San Diego/Tijuana Mexico border region. Women were 40.9 + 8.2 years old, moderately acculturated, with 44% having a high school education, and many (44%) having an income of less than $1100 per month. The curriculum was developed and tested in three modules. The CHWs had a significant increase in research ethics knowledge as a result of reviewing each module (significance ranged from .016 to .001). In addition, CHWs provided the curriculum development team with a number of suggestions for improvement. The Project TRES research ethics curriculum is now available for use where CHWs are integral members of a research team.