Mountain States Group's current Idaho Partnership for Hispanic Health (IPHH) NCMHD phase one grant has completed significant planning work. IPHH has built a Core Team partnership among five research, community, and health care organizations;established a functioning Hispanic Community Advisory Board;completed a comprehensive community health assessment;determined the project's disease focus and intervention model;and planned out the pilot intervention. The proposed five-year implementation study will continue IPHH's partnership work with the Hispanic community in southwest Idaho. The disease focus -based on community assessment results, community decision-making, and secondary data - will be metabolic syndrome. The intervention - an adaptation of the promotores (community health worker) indigenous health education, outreach and advocacy model -will be implemented to build on Hispanic family and community strengths. The defined community will remain the southwest Idaho Hispanic population. The project has four study aims. 1) As behavior change is the first line of prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome, the intervention will work at the family level to research the impact of the intervention on changes in diet and physical activity of 680 family members. 2) The intervention will also work at the community level to create change in community norms and practices on diet and exercise, and to build resources that support and reinforce community level behavior change. Baseline and end-of-project data will document these community level impacts. 3) As community involvement is vital to all aspects of the study, the contribution of community participation will also be evaluated through qualitative surveys and interviews with the Core Team and CAB throughout the project. 4) Finally, IPHH will study the local capacity built to sustain the promotores intervention model. The project will document changes in Hispanic health care utilization of local clinic and hospital services, and demonstrate the value of local health facility investment in the promotores program. Project partners include Mountain States Group as applicant organization and partnership convener, University of Washington as research and evaluation partner, Centra de Comunidad y Justicia (Center for Community and Justice) as a community partner, Boise States University Department of Nursing as health care education partner, and Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs as dissemination partner. The project directly addresses several Healthy People 2010 objectives, including """"""""increase consumption of fruit to at least two daily servings,"""""""" """"""""increase consumption of vegetables to at least three daily servings,"""""""" and """"""""increase moderate physical activity to at least 30 minutes per day."""""""" The study also emphasizes the critical role of preventive services in preventing and managing chronic diseases.
