338612
Integration of complementary and alternative practices to support first-time, low-income pregnant women: Community health workers utilize interactive mobile health technology to promote health and access beyond the health care system
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
: 3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Anna Hassan, MPH,
Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Starleen Maharaj, BA,
Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Arti Shankar, PhD,
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Patricia Davis, BS,
Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Maureen Y. Lichtveld, MD, MPH,
Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Stress experienced by pregnant women has been shown to influence emotional, cognitive and behavioral challenges among children after birth. Previous studies have shown that social support can buffer stress experienced by pregnant women. Mobile health technology has been identified as an effective and preferred tool to enable community-based support and information gathering in urban, low-income African American women. First-time, WIC-eligible pregnant women from disaster-prone parishes in SE Louisiana were recruited in their first trimester into a community based participatory research program which provided one-on-one support from trained Community Health Workers (CHWs). The CHWs provided holistic support and resources to complement existing WIC services in order to address continuum of care, such as nutritional and physical concerns, both in person and through the interactive mobile health technology portal. Psychosocial survey data were collected throughout pregnancy and postpartum including Scale to Assess the Therapeutic Relationship (STAR) in community mental health care, which quantified perceived trust and collaboration between participant and CHW, and Connor Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), measuring participants’ ability to respond to stressors. Higher scores signified increased trust and resilience, respectively. The final cohort, completed in May 2015, (N=141) and was predominately <25 years old (65%), African American (69%), urban (73%), single (57%), high school educated (63%) and enrolled in Medicaid (61%). Both perceived trust (STAR) and resilience (CD-RISC) significantly increased from first collection to 6 months postpartum (p=0.019 and p=0.002, respectively) and remained significantly positively correlated throughout the program. If the participant self-reported utilizing information and resources from the mobile health technology portal, there was a significant association between the participant’s health seeking behavior and a higher resiliency score (CD-RISC) at 6 months postpartum (p=0.0122). Protective effects from rich functional social networks were observed. From a policy perspective, connecting first-time, WIC-eligible mothers with trained, technology-enabled CHWs may lead to preventive and supportive solutions to positively affect pregnancy experience and access to care.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate academic-community partnership.
Describe the research components embedded into an intervention program.
Explain the effects social support can have on pregnant women.
Identify the effects technology-enabled CHWs can have on pregnancy experience of first-time, WIC-eligible pregnant women in southeast Louisiana.
Keyword(s): Community Health Workers and Promoters, Maternal and Child Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Program Manager and collaborate with our trained Community Health Workers who engage participants and administer all data collection. I attained my MPH in Epidemiology and have extensive data management and data analysis experience both domestically and abroad. I set up mobile platform for survey collection and manage and clean all data while working closely with biostatistician to test our hypotheses.
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.
