141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

281660
A methodology to assess impact of promotores (Community Health Workers)

Monday, November 4, 2013

Keri Baker, MSc, RN , Sacred Valley Health, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru
Julia Curry , Sacred Valley Health, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru
Jenny Nepom , Sacred Valley Health, Ollantaytambo, Cusco, Peru
Adam Kraus , Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Sacred Valley Health's (SVH) CHWs or “promotores” are trained to support the community health needs of high altitude, resource poor communities within the Ollantaytambo district of the Sacred Valley, Peru. SVH devised a method to measure the impact of rural CHWs by launching a community-based study to identify and measure the incidence of two health indicators. The goals were (1) to focus future CHW training topics on study results and (2) to re-implement the study after one-year to compare incidence rates of health indicators and assess if CHWs have impacted the overall community health. The study was piloted in a rural, indigenous (Quechan) community over an eight-week period. The idea was presented to and adopted by the community. Given standardized definitions of prolonged cough and diarrhea each participating household self-reported on picture-based tally boards. These health indicators were selected based on aggregated data gathered from medical campaigns. CHWs and SVH collaborated to gather data in two-week increments during home visits and at community meetings. Variables influencing the effectiveness of the study included language barriers among Spanish and Quechua speakers, agrarian lifestyle (rainy season, movement of animals), literacy, cultural differences in defining illness, and methods of data acquisition. Future studies will account for the aforementioned variables to increase the validity of the data. Additionally, reflections and input from the CHWs will be used to further enhance study design and implementation. This presentation will include comments by the CHWs on the poster summarizing their perspectives and experiences.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Identify the needs of the target population in designing a CHW impact study. Discuss if Sacred Valley Health's method of community-based, self-reported data assesses the impact of CHWs in their community.

Keywords: Data Collection, Native and Indigenous Populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Co-founder and Executive Director of Sacred Valley Health. I recently completed the Global Health Effectiveness Program at Harvard School of Public Health. I have overseen the successful implementation of a community health worker (CHW) program in Ollantaytambo, Peru.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

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.