Abstract
BackgroundSocial support plays a critical role in physical and emotional health, making it an important component of community health worker (CHW) health promotion interventions. Different types of support operate in different ways, however, and the relationship between the nature of CHW support and the subsequent health benefit for their clients is not well understood.MethodsThis paper describes an integrated mixed methods study of the emotional, informational, appraisal and tangible support CHWs provided to Latinx community members residing in three US-Mexico border communities. Using a cohort (n = 159) from a CHW community-based intervention, we identify and describe four clusters of social support in which participants are characterized by life situations that informed the types of social support provided by the CHW. We examine the association between each cluster and client perceptions of social support over the 6-month intervention.ResultsCHWs provided emotional, appraisal, informational and tangible support depending on the needs of participants. Participants who received higher levels of emotional support from the CHW experienced the greatest post intervention increase in perceived social support.ConclusionsStudy findings suggest that CHWs may be adept at providing non-directive social support based on their interaction with a client rather than a health outcome objective. Health promotion interventions should allow CHWs the flexibility to tailor provision of social support based on their assessment of client needs.
Highlights
Social support plays a critical role in physical and emotional health, making it an important component of community health worker (CHW) health promotion interventions
The CHWs enrolled 189 participants into the LINKS intervention; Table 1 presents the baseline characteristics of the LINKS participants
Studies have established the critical role of social support in improving physical and emotional health, as it relates to chronic disease management
Summary
Social support plays a critical role in physical and emotional health, making it an important component of community health worker (CHW) health promotion interventions. Different types of support operate in different ways, and the relationship between the nature of CHW support and the subsequent health benefit for their clients is not well understood. Feeling loved by others or being part of a social network is associated with a person’s overall physical health and emotional wellness [1, 2]. Individuals perceive social support differently based on who is providing it, for example, and the perception of having social support from a loved one may be more important than its actual delivery [1]. There are distinct types of support that operate in different ways. Van Dam describes these as emotional (providing affirmation and nurturance), informational (giving advice and information), instrumental (providing a tangible resource) and appraisal (helping to understand a stressful situation) [3]
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