Improving health self-efficacy at a community health fair in Lubbock, Texas

Abstract

To improve the health self-efficacy of the Lubbock, Texas community, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine students organized a health fair to promote patient education and improve awareness of health issues, such as diabetes, heart health, hypertension, skin care, hypercholesterolemia, nutrition, stress management, cancer screening and recommendations, physical fitness, and mental health. An evaluation of 57 health fair participants’ self-reported self-efficacy on a scale from 0 to 10 before and after visiting the health fair revealed an average increase in self-efficacy of 0.87 (before: 7.96, after: 8.83, p<0.0001, std=1.78). Although the health fair was successful in marginally improving patient self-efficacy, patient education and overall community health can continue to be improved by expanding educational opportunities for health promotion and illness prevention, furthering overall access to care, and broadening the health fair’s target population.