Promotora de Salud: Promoting Folic Acid Use Among Hispanic Women

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Womens Health (Larchmt)
• Personal Author:
  deRosset, Leslie ; Mullenix, Amy ; Flores, Alina ; Mattia-Dewey, Daniel ; Mai, Cara T.
• Description:
  Background
  
  The U.S. Public Health Service recommends that all women in the United States capable of becoming pregnant consume 400 μg of folic acid daily to reduce their risk of having a pregnancy affected by a neural tube defect (NTD). However, disparities exist in the consumption of folic acid, with Hispanic women having lower rates of folic acid consumption than non-Hispanic white women.
  
  Methods
  
  A community-based feasibility study was designed to assess the utility of the promotora de salud model to promote consumption of multivitamins containing folic acid for the prevention of NTDs among Spanish-speaking Hispanic women in North Carolina. The study consisted of an educational intervention given by a promotora (a lay, community health worker), with data collection occurring at baseline and four months post-intervention to measure changes in knowledge and behavior. Overall, 52% (n = 303) of participants completed all components of the study.
  
  Results
  
  Self-reported daily multivitamin consumption increased from 24% at baseline to 71% four months post-intervention. During the same time frame, awareness of folic acid increased from 78% to 98% and knowledge of the role of folic acid in the prevention of birth defects increased from 82% to 92%.
  
  Conclusions
  
  The results of this study indicate that the promotora de salud model may be effective in reaching a subpopulation of women with the folic acid message. Additional studies with larger population sizes are warranted to validate these findings.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Dietary Supplements Feasibility Studies Female Folic Acid Healthcare Disparities Health Education Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Health Promotion Hispanic Or Latino Humans Neural Tube Defects Preconception Care Pregnancy Program Evaluation Vitamins Young Adult

  More +
• Source:
  J Womens Health (Larchmt). 23(6):525-531
• Pubmed ID:
  24707879
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4464669
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:523cc4795c70f588b8d03d311bebd0aa8b784e2a09bf22cb44ed98cf662aac31
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/31607/cdc_31607_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 246.65 KB ]