Camille Nebeker, MS¹, Karen Jacqueline Coleman, PhD², John Elder, PhD³, Michael Kalichman, PhD⁴, Lori J. McNicholas, PHD, RD⁵, Gayle Simon, MPH¹, Gregory A. Talavera, MD, MPH², Ana C. Talavera, MPH², and Jennifer Terpstra, MA². (1) Graduate and Research Affairs, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, MC 1643, San Diego, CA 92182, (2) Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182, (3) Center for Behavioral and Community Health Studies, San Diego State University, Graduate School of Public Health, 9245 Sky Park Court, Suite 221, San Diego, CA 92123, (619) 594-2997, jelder@projects.sdsu.edu, (4) Research Ethics Program, Office of Graduate Studies and Research, University of California, San Diego, 9300 Gilman Drive, MC 0003, San Diego, CA 92093, (5) GSPH/Por La Vida Project, San Diego State University, Por La Vida - SDSU Foundation, 6505 Alvarado Road, Suite 205, San Diego, CA 92120

Investigators conducting research in Latino communities increasingly rely on the Community Health Worker/Promotore model to deliver public health interventions. The role of the Promotores is to maintain a positive rapport with community members while delivering health interventions to Latino communities. Promotores responsibilities range in complexity and include intervention delivery, participant recruitment, screening, selection and consent, data collection and management, and serving as a liaison between the researcher and the community under study. Due to the critical role and responsibilities that Promotores hold in research targeting the Latino community, the need for culturally tailored training materials that focus on ethical research practices has been recognized.

Project TRES (Training in Research Ethics and Standards) is funded by National Institutes of Health to develop, disseminate and evaluate a culturally tailored, content-appropriate, Spanish-translated research ethics curriculum that targets Community Health Advisors/promotores conducting research in the Hispanic/Latino communities. The curriculum developed will rely on The Belmont Report to guide the ethical concepts of each module. We will describe the curriculum development process and provide samples of training materials developed. Design recommendations from key stakeholders (investigators/managers (n=9)and promotores (n=19)) obtained during focus groups and interviews mirrored our expectations for standard course concepts and identified cultural barriers to training. Not anticipated was the need to include instruction in basic research design and methodology. Format recommendations focused on simplicity of presentation and use of culturally relevant scenarios/case studies (video, role-plays) that allow for demonstration of the ethical principle/concept using examples/case studies depicting real examples from the field.

Learning Objectives: