ASPO Abstracts
Meeting underserved Spanish-speaking families where they are: evaluating the implementation of Un Abrazo Para La Familia in southern Arizona
Category: Cancer Health Disparities
Conference Year: 2020
Abstract Body:
Assess the implementation of an evidence-based program, Un Abrazo Para La Familia (Abrazo), for
underserved families facing cancer in 5 southern Arizona counties (Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Yuma)
in partnership with the Arizona Community Health Worker Association (AzCHOW).Abrazo is a brief cancer-related psychosocial educational intervention for low-income families delivered in English or Spanish at home or another convenient location. Through a partnership with AzCHOW and the University of Arizona (UA), Community Health Workers (CHWs) were identified and trained to deliver Abrazo in southern Arizona. Recruitment through the UA Cancer Center alone was revised to include community-based recruitment with the help of CHWs in their respective counties. To better understand program implementation in the geographically disparate five-county area, the program was piloted in Pima and Yuma counties for 1 year. The RE-AIM framework guided the program evaluation through collection of implementation data (e.g. number of CHWs trained) and interviews with CHWs.17 CHWs have been trained since November 2017 to deliver the Abrazo program in Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz, and Yuma counties. The average age of the CHWs is 51, with an average of 9 years experience as a CHW. All of the CHWs trained are female and prefer Spanish as their written and spoken language. Common themes from the interviews with CHWs were the importance of involving the family, and the value of working with CHWs. An interim evaluation of the implementation in five counties allowed for the modification of recruitment protocols, resulting in three times the number of participants recruited per month. During the pilot implementation in Pima and Yuma counties, 140 participants received the Abrazo intervention. Of these participants, 92.2% identified as Hispanic/Latino, 74.2% preferred Spanish as their written and spoken language, 61% were insured through Arizonas' Medicaid program, and 38.7% had less than a high school education.The ongoing modification of Abrazo recruitment efforts was important in successfully reaching low-income Spanish-speaking families, across southern Arizona, by collaborating with the CHWs and building a recruitment plan utilizing their expertise and knowledge of communities.
Keywords: implementation science, underserved, cancer