142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

313773
Using a Community Engagement Approach to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Healthy Habits Program on Function and Health in Chinese Older Adults

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Cynthia Hau, MPH , Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Kieran Reid, MS, MPH , Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, and Sarcopenia (NEPS) Laboratory, Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University, Boston, MA
Kit Wong , Wang YMCA of Chinatown, The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Boston, Boston, MA
Richard Chin, MSW , Wang YMCA of Chinatown, The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Boston, Boston, MA
Timothy Botto, BSc , Wang YMCA of Chinatown, The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Boston, Boston, MA
Misha Eliasziw, PhD , Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Odilia Bermudez, PhD, MPH , Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA
Roger Fielding, PhD , Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, and Sarcopenia (NEPS) Laboratory, Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University, Boston, MA
There is a growing demand for culturally sensitive programs to reduce ethnic health disparities.  In response, the Wang YMCA of Chinatown implemented the Healthy Habits Program (HHP) for Chinese older adults who experience social isolation, low socioeconomic status, and language barriers.  This 6-month intervention provides gym access and weekly nutrition education to promote healthy habits.  Besides evaluating the effectiveness, we concurrently built community capacity by translating standardized measurement tools to be culturally appropriate for this specific population.

We tailored a program evaluation to meet the needs of the community and aging population.  Short Physical Performance Battery, Mini-Mental State Examination, and instruments measuring self-reported nutritional status, depressive symptoms, and quality of life were used to quantify function and health.  To promote sustainability, the YMCA staff were trained and actively involved in data collection and management.  Paired t-tests were performed to assess the mean difference between baseline and 6-month measures.

Fifty participants (mean age 68 ± 6 years; 68% female) agreed to participate.  On average, the HHP improved physical and cognitive function by 8.3% (p=0.01) and 6.9% (p=0.001) respectively, and decreased depressive symptoms by 37.7% (p=0.03).  Quality of life also improved but did not reach statistical significance (p=0.051).  No statistically significant changes were observed in strength and nutritional status.

This evaluation demonstrates that culturally sensitive health promotion programs can significantly improve function and health of older minorities.  It also underscores that community engagement can be an effective approach for conducting program evaluation, and can be a strategy to advance other community-based programs.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Explain the benefits of translating standardized measurement tools into a culturally sensitive format to advance community-based programs. Describe how community members can be trained to perform a meaningful program evaluation using standardized research measurement tools. Demonstrate how a culturally tailored program evaluation can be used to positively impact future health promotion programs designed for older minorities.

Keyword(s): Minority Health, Community-Based Partnership & Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have extensive experience in performing assessments to quantify the change in physical function, cognition, and quality of life outcomes in older adults. I have been working in geriatric research at Tufts University for 5 years, where I have developed my data collection, coordination, study design, and statistical analysis skills. Additionally, I was raised in the Chinese community and immigrated to the US, and I can directly relate to the challenges this population may face.
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.

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