Socios para su Salud – A program evaluation of a community-based health education program in Cameron Park, Texas

INTRODUCTION: Management of chronic diseases such as diabetes requires a multi-faceted approach. Diabetes care involves educating patients on the disease process, their medication regimen, adequate blood sugar monitoring, proper nutritional habits, adequate physical exercise requirements, and preventive measures to avoid future complications. These services are difficult to obtain for patients without medical insurance and for those who live in resource poor settings. Community-Based Health Education Programs, such as Socios para su Salud, utilize community health workers or promotores to offer comprehensive education on the management of diabetes and focus on prevention strategies to decrease the chronic disease burden of the community. The research done at Cameron Park, Texas examines the efforts of such an outreach program by assessing participation and evaluating diabetic patients’ health outcomes. \r\nMETHODS: Over the period of October 2007 to October 2008 data of all patients attending classes pertaining to diabetes education and management along with their lab data and patients who had any lab data drawn were compiled into a Microsoft Excel database.\r\nRESULTS: The database included 332 patients, of which 164 were diabetic. Of these 164 diabetics 102 (62 percent) participants had no lab data recorded, 37 (22.5 percent) had one set of lab data, and only 25 (15 percent) had two or more sets of lab data. \r\nCONCLUSIONS: Although strong participation in program activities was demonstrated through sign-in-sheets, it was not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of these sessions, since systematic participation and lab data on attendees was not collected. Consistent data collection methods with the appropriate tools and defined interventions need to be in place for each program course to aid in assessing health outcomes of participants over time.\r\n

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Public Health

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Grantor

The University of Texas Medical Branch

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Charu Sawhney

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dr. Kirk L. Smith, M.D., Ph.D.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Dr. Susan Weller, Ph.D.
• Dr. Laura Rudkin, Ph.D.

• promotores
• diabetes
• community-based health education program
• community health workers
• Cameron Park

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the TDL web site by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Dc Identifier Other

etd-07162009-233819

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utmb-ir.tdl.org:2152.3/161