Participants’ assessments of the effects of a community health worker intervention on their diabetes self-management and interactions with healthcare providers.

Authors: Heisler M, Spencer M, Forman J, Robinson C, Shultz C, Palmisano G, Graddy-Dansby G, Kieffer E.

The specific ways in which community health worker (CHW) programs affect participants’ healthcare behaviors and interactions with their healthcare providers, as well as mechanisms by which CHW programs influence these outcomes, are poorly understood. A qualitative descriptive study of participants in a successful CHW diabetes self-management program was designed to examine: (1) what gaps in diabetes care, with a focus on patient-doctor interactions, participants identify; (2) how the program influences participants’ diabetes care and interactions with healthcare providers, and what gaps, if any, it addresses. Study findings suggest ways that CHW programs that provide both one-on-one support and group self-management training sessions may be effective in promoting more effective diabetes care and patient-doctor relationships among Latino and African-American adults with diabetes. Through these mechanisms, such interventions may help to mitigate racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes care and outcomes.