Promotoras as Home Health Educators

This project will describe medical management of patients with diabetes by providing family based education on the benefits of good nutrition and adequate exercise to improve patient outcomes. The target population was Spanish Speaking diabetic patients who attended Ashland Free Clinic in the unincorporated area of Alameda County. The dietary recommendations were relevant and practical based on the types of food they normally eat. The project provided 72 home visits to 34 patients with home health education. Our trained health care educators/Promotoras visited these patients at their homes to provide customized, whole family interactive, diabetes education. Patients unable to host a home visit received diabetes education at the clinic. Our trained educators/promotoras promoted family support and effectively resolved any questions the patient and their family had about diet or exercise recommendations to help control their diabetes. Study target was to decrease HgA1C levels by 0.7 points in all patients. That was exceeded. The results, patients who completed this study showed a 2.0 point (on average) decrease in HgA1C levels. Measurement of success was a survey at the end of study to see if patients had followed dietary and exercise recommendations and if they had improved family support to help them with these recommendations. Of those patients who responded to this survey 94% noted that they had improved family support and had followed our dietary recommendations. In addition, 58% of respondents also noted they had followed our exercise recommendations to help improve their health as well as their diabetes.