Agreement with and adherence to asthma guidelines was higher for specialists than for primary care clinicians, but was low in both groups for several key recommendations. Self-efficacy was a good predictor of guideline adherence among primary care clinicians but not among specialists.

None.

No abstract

Kokua Kalihi Valley, a federally qualified health center in Hawaii, collaborated with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to test the efficacy of community health workers (CHWs) to deliver the Healthy Heart, Healthy Family curriculum to low-income Filipinos with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. At 12 months, significant improvements were seen in health behaviors, knowledge, and self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases. We also observed decreases in total cholesterol from 186.25 mg/dl to 170.88 mg/dl (p5.001), low-density lipoprotein from 114.43 mg/dl to 103.04 mg/dl (p5.013), and fasting blood glucose from 117.95 mg/dl to 109.07 mg/dl (p5.034). Although these changes were statistically significant, they are small and not clinically meaningful in reducing CVD risk. The high-density lipoprotein was 3.3 mg/dl lower (worse) at 12 months (p5.003), mean values for blood pressure, BMI, and waist circumference increased. Community health workers can be trained to deliver evidence-based curricula that improve health behaviors and increase self-efficacy in managing chronic diseases.

Salud Para Su Carozón is a culturally sensitive, community-based program to increase heart healthy knowledge and behaviors among Latinos. Promotoras were trained using a 10-session manual to teach participants from 7 communities about heart disease risk factors and skills to achieve heart healthy behaviors. In 435 participants with pre-to-post self-reported data, there were increases in physical activity outside of work (57%-78%), heart health knowledge (49%-76%), and confidence in preparing heart healthy meals (66%-81%) (all Ps < .001). Results suggest that promotoras can provide effective health education to improve heart health risk behaviors in select Latino communities.