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Kirkland Dissertation Final PDF A.pdf (7.46 MB)

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Using Peer Support Groups as an Innovative Approach to Improve Wellness and Self-Care Among Community Health Workers

Kirkland, Chelsey
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1586-6766
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent165818148483841

Abstract Details

, PHD, Kent State University, College of Public Health.
Community health workers (CHWs) serve the communities they are from and are more likely to experience a similar low socioeconomic status, leading to a higher-than-average risk for chronic diseases and poor health outcomes. CHWs also often work in environments that rarely facilitate their wellness and self-care, indicating a need for wellness and self-care programming. Two critical aspects are burnout and physical activity (PA). To our knowledge, there are no published CHW wellness or self-care programs. Therefore, we adapted a participant-led program, HANS KAI, using the collective efficacy conceptual framework. This study had three aims: (1) conduct a CHW HANS KAI program formative evaluation, (2) pilot the CHW HANS KAI program, and (3) conduct a mixed-methods evaluation of the CHW HANS KAI program. Focus groups (n = 5 ) were conducted using a web conferencing platform. Data were analyzed using descriptive and interpretive qualitative research methods. Participants were from the Midwest, United States, and included CHWs (n = 35) and supervisors (n = 5). Eight salient themes were developed within five domains. Findings reveal that CHW HANS KAI is culturally appropriate and beneficial to CHWs. For Aim 2, nine Ohio CHWs participated in the pilot CHW HANS KAI intervention. We used a quasi-experimental one-group design with a double pretest, double posttest, and non-equivalent dependent variable. Despite following focus group recommendations and working closely with a community partner to implement the pilot CHW HANS KAI, our study was underpowered and had incomplete, non-normally distributed data. Therefore, we present challenges and recommendations for practitioners and researchers to implement future CHW HANS KAI groups. For aim 3, we conducted a mixed-methods summative evaluation to explore how the qualitative interview results about HANS KAI participants’ PA, burnout, and collective efficacy contextualize the quantitative intervention results. Overall, a few participants indicated perceived improvements within PA and collective efficacy, all described positive experiences, and all found it to be beneficial. These studies demonstrate the possibility of a CHW HANS KAI group positively impacting CHW wellness and self-care. They also offer insights into improvements for future CHW HANS KAI groups and other CHW-specific programming.
Jeffrey Hallam (Committee Chair)
Sheryl Chatfield (Committee Member)
Abbey Eng (Committee Member)
Lisa Borgerding (Committee Member)
Behavioral Sciences; Health; Public Health
community health worker; physical activity; burnout; collective efficacy; mixed-method; wellness; self-care; intervention

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kirkland, C. (2022). Using Peer Support Groups as an Innovative Approach to Improve Wellness and Self-Care Among Community Health Workers [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent165818148483841

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kirkland, Chelsey. Using Peer Support Groups as an Innovative Approach to Improve Wellness and Self-Care Among Community Health Workers. 2022. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent165818148483841.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kirkland, Chelsey. "Using Peer Support Groups as an Innovative Approach to Improve Wellness and Self-Care Among Community Health Workers." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent165818148483841

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent165818148483841
387
© 2022, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Using Peer Support Groups as an Innovative Approach to Improve Wellness and Self-Care Among Community Health Workers by Chelsey Kirkland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12