Developing Smart Goals With Latinos To Address Their Life Concerns Surrounding Physical Activity And Recreation

Abstract

PURPOSE: Raices was a community health worker (promotores)-delivered intervention offering non-directive social support to improve healthcare access, physical activity, and healthy eating among Latinos living in an emerging community, an area with a small yet growing Latino population. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the intervention helped participants develop SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, realistic, attainable and time-bound) goals that addressed their life concerns, specifically highlighting those findings related to physical activity. METHODS: Promotores used an intervention tool assessing wellness in eight domains of participants’ lives (e.g., family, physical activity/recreation) and supported participants in developing SMART goals to address their life concerns. The research team summarized participants’ data and assessed whether the goals 1) met SMART criteria and 2) focused on participants’ identified concerns. RESULTS: We recruited 192 Latino participants from South America (42%), Mexico (30%) Central America (11%) and other countries (10%). Participants ranked physical activity and recreation (18.2%) and eating habits (17.8%) as top areas that were concerning or very concerning. Overall, participants developed 195 goals after the first intervention visit. Most goals met the SMART criteria completely (35.4%) or partially (48.7). Of the 195 goals set, 30% of them focused on physical activity/recreation, and 91% of those goals met the SMART criteria completely or partially. CONCLUSIONS: Promotores successfully elicited participant life concerns and assisted them in setting SMART goals to address these areas of concern, including a top concern of physical activity/recreation. The intervention would benefit from additional promotores training in developing SMART goals.