Training Community Health Advisors in African American Churches: Do Training Outcomes Predict Performance?

• Published in: Journal of cancer education Vol. 35; no. 2; pp. 395 - 402
• Main Authors: Maxwell, Annette E., Lucas-Wright, Aziza, Gatson, Juana, Cindy Chang, L., Crespi, Catherine M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advisors; African Americans; African Americans - education; African Americans - psychology; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Black churches; Cancer; Cancer Research; Churches; Colorectal Neoplasms - diagnosis; Colorectal Neoplasms - prevention & control; Colorectal Neoplasms - psychology; Community Health Workers - education; Community Relations; Early Detection of Cancer - methods; Early Detection of Cancer - psychology; Early Detection of Cancer - statistics & numerical data; Female; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health promotion; Health Promotion - methods; Humans; Male; Medical screening; Middle Aged; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Public Health; Screening Tests; Self Efficacy; Training; African American churches; Cancer screening promotion; Training of community health advisors
• ISSN: 0885-8195; 1543-0154
• DOI: 10.1007/s13187-019-1478-1

Programs that utilize Community Health Advisors (CHAs) to promote cancer screening are effective in community settings. However, predictors of CHA performance are not well understood. From 2016 to 2018, we partnered with 9 African American churches in South Los Angeles and trained 49 CHAs to promote cancer screening in an effort to build capacity for health promotion in a low-resource community. This paper examines CHA characteristics and training outcomes in African American faith-based settings and explores the relationship of these variables to successful recruitment of participants by CHAs. Pre- and post-tests showed statistically significant increases in knowledge of colorectal cancer screening guidelines (4 items) and human subjects protection rules (5 items) and CHAs’ perceived self-efficacy to perform specific tasks for the study (13 items, Cronbach’s alpha > 0.90). There were no significant differences between active CHAs who recruited at least 10 participants ( N  = 29) and inactive/less active CHAs ( N  = 20) with respect to demographic characteristics and training outcomes. We report challenges and facilitators to recruitment from CHA debriefings at 12 months follow-up. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for future studies to move this field forward.