142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

302969
Relationship between CHW characteristics and residents' knowledge in a CHW-led cancer education intervention: Project outcomes and strategies

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Katharine Nimmons, MSc, MPH , Center for Community Health Development - National CHW Training Center, TX A&M School of Rural Public Health, College Station, TX
Julie Ann St. John, MA, MPH, DrPH , Center for Community Health Development, School of Rural Public Health, TAMHSC, San Benito, TX
Chris Beaudoin, PhD , Department of Communication, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Paula Saldana, CHW, CHWI , Texas A&M School of Rural Health, College Station, TX
Dinorah Martinez, CHW, CHWI , Center for Community Health Development, Texas A&M School of Rural Health, College Station, TX
The 2011-2013 Education to Promote Improved Cancer Outcomes (EPICO) project used Community Health Workers/Promotores (CHW/Ps) trained in message tailoring to deliver over 5000 units of resident training and over 750 units of CHW training on cancer prevention/detection, treatment, and survivorship for Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer in Texas. EPICO CHW/Ps and residents were predominately Spanish-speaking Hispanics at risk for poor health outcomes, including higher rates of cancer mortality than the state and national average. The first half of the presentation outlines the project methodology and findings. Using panel data to examine over-time changes in cancer knowledge among Lower Rio Grande Valley residents, the researchers found significant changes from baseline to both Times 1 and 2. Additional individual-level and multilevel analyses indicated that the increase in cancer knowledge was predicted by residents’ perceptions of CHW/P trust and by residents’ intention to change their lifestyles. Multilevel analysis also showed that the increase in cancer prevention knowledge among residents was predicted by attributes of the CHW/Ps who taught them. In particular, CHW/Ps with higher education levels have the most impact on residents’ increased knowledge over time. Surprisingly, CHW/Ps with more years of experience were less effective teachers than their early-career counterparts. A possible explanation for this difference is an increased willingness to adapt new techniques such as message tailoring for newly minted CHW/Ps. The presentation’s second half engages observers in a brief interactive activity designed to train CHW/Ps how to use message tailoring in their own communities.  

The presenter is a CHW/P Instructor.

Learning Areas:

Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Describe the EPICO project methodology and results. Discuss the relationship between resident knowledge and CHW/P effectiveness. Analyze characteristics of CHW/P that predict effectiveness in the EPICO project. Demonstrate message tailoring techniques

Keyword(s): Cancer Prevention and Screening, Community Health Workers and Promoters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a CHW instructor and I work at the Texas A&M Center for Community Health Development's National CHW Training Center. I was an evaluator for the EPICO project described in this abstract.
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.