Immigrant Caregiver Health Care Navigation for Children
Conditions
Keywords
Refugee Health, Immigrant Health, Health care navigation
Brief summary
Learning to navigate the US health system is challenging for many new immigrants. This pilot study will determine whether an intervention to teach parents key skills needed to access health care for children is feasible and acceptable to immigrant parents. This study will also look for evidence of efficacy to inform the planning process for future, larger evaluations of the intervention (i.e., estimate effect sizes).
Detailed description
Parents-particularly those with limited English proficiency (LEP) and limited literacy-may require months or years of experiential learning to master fundamental health care navigation tasks, such as requesting an interpreter. Most programs teaching health care navigation skills are ad hoc and have not be evaluated. In this study, Investigators will pilot a group-based educational intervention in which a bilingual community health worker will use an interactive curriculum to teach immigrant parents key skills needed to access health care for children. Parents and caregivers for children \<18 years will be enrolled in closed groups of 6-12 individuals. The 6-12 week intervention will comprise 6 meetings, each of which will be no longer than 75 minutes. Each meeting will focus on one of six skills: 1. Requesting an interpreter; 2. Communicating with a health care facility by telephone; 3. Scheduling appointments; 4. Traveling to health care facilities and registering with the front desk; 5. Obtaining appointments with specialists; 6. Calling 911 for an ambulance. Each meeting will follow a pre-specified plan that will typically include welcoming activities, a review of prior material, introduction of new material, and a series of activities (e.g., role play) to practice key skills. Sessions will be interactive, culturally-appropriate, and held in parents' preferred language.
Interventions
OTHERGroup-based educational intervention
The group-based educational intervention will use a bilingual Community Health Worker (CHW) who will teach parents key skills needed to access health care for children. Parents will be invited to attend 6 small, closed-group sessions held over 12 weeks and lasting no more than 75 minutes. Sessions will be interactive, culturally-appropriate, and held in parents' preferred language.
Sponsors
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Adult age 18 years or older * Parent of a child \<18 years * Nepali-speaking * Resident of the US for \<10 years
Exclusion criteria
* Scheduled to move away from the study location (e.g., to another city) before the end of the 6-session intervention
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of subjects enrolling in study and completing study visits | 9 months | Enrollment of the target sample and completion of the planned study visits by participants |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in retainment of health care navigation skills from baseline | 9 months | Change in Health Care Navigation Inventory (HCNI) Skills Subscale scores from baseline to post-intervention study visits. Scores can range from 12 to 60, with higher scores indicating better outcomes. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed