Promotores create a bridge between healthier living and a growing Hispanic population

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帕特里夏·格瓦拉喜欢和她5岁的女儿一起做事, Miranda, 尤其是画画和偶尔在公园散步.

After a promotora, or community health worker, 顺道拜访了他们在匹兹堡地区的家, their lives became more active.

Guevara signed up for a promotora-led program for Latino preschoolers and their families. 通过家庭试点项目, University of Pittsburgh researchers sought to study how community health workers affected physical activity among Latino families with young children.

"I thought it was great because we made a commitment to be physically active at least five days a week," said Guevara, 七年前从委内瑞拉搬到宾夕法尼亚的人.

Promotores, 这是西班牙语对社区卫生工作者的中性称呼, work as liaisons between communities and public health and social services to narrow gaps in health equity. The promotores typically share language and ethnicity with the people with whom they work. Their role is to raise awareness and teach participants how to access health services and other programs.

"We look like them, 我们像他们一样说话，我们是他们社区的一部分," said Mercedes Cruz-Ruiz, a longtime promotora who trains community health workers through her organization in Fort Worth, Texas. “我们在社区中建立长期关系."

Community health workers have long disseminated basic health education in various countries. In China, early promoters of preventive health were trained farmworkers doing outreach in agricultural fields in the 1950s and 1960s. The concept spread globally, and by the 1970s, it became part of efforts to reach rural and low-income communities in the United States.

Spanish-speaking promotores have become essential in Latino communities – one of the fastest-growing populations in the U.S. – in recent years. A 2015年疾病控制和预防中心报告 found that Hispanic people had disproportionately higher death rates from some health conditions, including diabetes, and a higher prevalence of obesity and uncontrolled high blood pressure – all of which can contribute to heart disease. 西班牙裔人口占美国人口的近20%.S. population, 但在所有种族或族裔群体中，他们的未参保率也是最高的, census data shows.

Promotores receive specialized training in health education and typically work under the guidance of nonprofits, 医疗保健中心和其他组织, many as volunteers. 联邦政策也通过拨款的方式资助推动者的工作, state programs, 医疗补助和其他社会服务项目.

In Pittsburgh, the university, local government and community groups use promotores to help the area's Hispanic population. 在阿勒格尼县，有3万多名西班牙裔居民.5% of the population, census data shows. Many of them live in Pittsburgh, 那里的西班牙裔社区从近7个,000 in 2010 to more than 10,000 by 2021. Pennsylvania's Hispanic population is the state's third-largest racial or ethnic group, at about 8%. 到2020年，这一数字将超过100万，比2010年增长约45%.

Dr. Patricia Documet, an associate professor in behavioral and community health sciences at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, said the city's growing Latino population includes a mix of people with roots in various Spanish-speaking countries. Documet, a pediatrician from Peru, 上世纪90年代她刚到匹兹堡时说过这句话, 缺乏针对西班牙裔居民的项目, but local government and community organizations have slowly begun to address their needs.

Much of her current research focuses on the impact of social support on the health of Latino people and of community health workers promoting access to health care services, 家庭健康饮食和锻炼. 她在Salud的拉丁裔参与小组工作, a coalition of community groups working with promotores and other Latino people on community-focused initiatives, such as De la Mano con la Salud (Lend a Hand to Health). The project trained male promotores to help connect Latino immigrant men with health and social services.

“推动者帮助参与者实现自己的目标，”Documet说. 这比告诉人们该做什么更有效."

In Texas, 那里大约40%的人口是西班牙裔, 克鲁兹-鲁伊斯想成为一名推广员的愿望源于她自己的经历. 她是小中风的幸存者，她的父母都有心脏病. 44岁时，她的父亲死于心脏病发作. 克鲁兹-鲁伊斯知道她的风险很高，所以她了解了心脏病. 她相信分享这些知识可以帮助其他人预防慢性疾病.

晋升人员的沙巴足球体育平台长短和培训情况各不相同, 这取决于他们了解到的健康问题, Cruz-Ruiz said. Once completed, 他们到社区里给人们量血压, 告诉他们如何服药, provide a ride to a doctor's appointment or share information on programs for healthier living.

她说:“如果我们能提前预防，我们就能减缓慢性疾病。. “医护人员可能有10分钟的沙巴足球体育平台和一个人交谈, but a community health worker, 我们可以和他们聊上一个小时，解释他们身体里到底发生了什么."

Guevara said she and Miranda liked the frequent interaction in their own home with a promotora who spoke Spanish. “促销员第一天来我们家, 她给我们带来了一个盒子，里面有指南和体育活动的游戏," she said.

The promotora has helped them stick to their commitment to be more active for the past two years, Guevara said.

"My daughter learned that exercise is necessary and helps us stay healthy and have better energy to be active," she said. “直到今天，我女儿仍然要求进行体育锻炼."