Introducing new health education and promotion technologies to rural Honduran community health workers: An opportunity to increase capacity and create sustainability

Hondurasx Ministry of Health (MOH) relies heavily on the use of lay community health workers to monitor and deliver preventive healthcare to the majority of rural and isolated communities. AMDV, a local NGO, worked with Hesperian and Honduran MOH community health workers to develop and pilot a new digital platform allowing CHWs to create popular health education materials. The goal was to increase knowledge, confidence, and motivation to create and utilize locally contextualized health literacy materials as part of a multifaceted approach to improving community health. Feedback was provided in focus groups, surveys, video, and in-depth interview.

In initial results, CHWs showed high levels of interest in the tool and creation of materials, although the users had little to no previous computer experience. CHWs also required training in basic health communication and message design. A series of trainings were designed in a participatory manner to increase CHW capacity in computation and creation and use of health literacy materials, which resulted in the use of materials in 15 communities. Utilization of the tool and materials is highly reliant on access to computer and internet technology and institutional socialization.

At the time this abstract is submitted, efforts are being made to socialize and integrate this tool into the municipal health center to sustain the use of culturally competent and community specific health messages in health promotion across more than 35 communities. Results show promise for efforts to bring new health technology to developing rural communities.