Abstract

Background:

San Joaquin Valley counties are ranked low on a composite index of health factors reflecting
health/risk behaviors, physical environment, access to care, and socioeconomic factors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to technology and transportation limited the attainability to care and education. As a collaborate effort between the UC Merced and Camarena Health, we implemented a Promotora-led virtual home visitation asthma education and management program. This study describes the characteristics of the study participants and overall change in asthma knowledge before and after the intervention.

Methods and Analysis:

Camarena Health Promotoras led a 4-week virtual home visitation program in June 2021. Nine
participants completed Qualtrics pre-surveys at baseline and post-surveys after the home visitation program. Surveys include demographic and asthma control questions, and 39 asthma knowledge-based questions. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS, ver. 28.0.

Findings:

Out of the nine adults who participated, six (67%) had asthma. Two of those adults also had children with asthma. The remaining three adults (33%) without asthma participated to gain a better understanding for their children who had asthma. Of the 6 adults with asthma, 5 (83.3%) were female. The median age was 45.0 (IQR 29.8 – 57.0) years. Adult asthma participants have lived with asthma long-term, since adolescence or early adulthood (Median 28.0 years; IQR 10.8 – 48.5 years). Compared to the pre-test, participants increased their asthma knowledge and skills by answering 7 additional questions correctly and improved 17 percentage points. Overall, participants improved from 71.8% (IQR:
61.5 – 75.6%) to 87.1% (IQR: 76.9 – 91.2%).