Promotoras (Community Health Workers) as partners in research, lessons learned and recommendations

Background: Promotoras de salud (community health workers) have long been recognized for their capacity to lead, teach and advocate for the communities they serve. In this study, promotoras were asked to take on yet another role, that of a researcher. Integrating promotoras into community based participatory (CBPR) research can be beneficial as they are known and trusted members of their communities that can improve outreach, recruitment and dissemination efforts. Methods: Twenty-five(25 promotoras were trained on the Su Corazon Su Vida curriculum, a heart health intervention developed by the NHLBI and delivered among Latinos. Promotoras obtained human subjects certification, were trained on research protocols, obtained informed consent, collected de-identified pre and post data from 750 community participants, and contributed to data interpretation as community advisory board members. Academic partners learned about mutual equal sharing of decision-making and information, and respect for community knowledge. Results: There are numerous benefits to including promotoras in research studies. There are also challenges in negotiating varied research agenda, ensuring participant confidentiality, data quality and integrity, especially when engaging promotoras across varied geographic locations. Discussion: Recommendations for future collaborations between promotoras and academic researchers include providing consistent follow-up through multiple media (email, text, phone, Facebook), providing evaluation protocol booster sessions after initial training, and collaborating with a community organization with a long history with promotoras de salud. Promotoras' unique perspective and experiences added to the study's success and their contributions to data interpretation allowed for a more meaningful analysis.