Measuring the Impact and Satisfaction Rates of Promotores de Salud-led Health Programs in Yakima County

Purpose: Increased infection and mortality rates of COVID-19 have disproportionately affected Latine communities as seen in increased rates of infection, hospitalization, and deaths with lower rates of vaccination across multiple states. Yakima County, WA experienced the highest rates on the West Coast within two months of the initial March 2020 lockdown, overwhelming the local healthcare systems and highlighting barriers to accessing healthcare for local Latine communities. In August 2021, 56 percent of COVID-19 cases in Yakima County were Latine yet Latine identifying people only accounted for 49 percent of the county’s population.Design: This study is a program evaluation of a community health intervention, the COVID-19 es Real campaign, which took place in Yakima County. The program evaluation consisted of Likert survey questions, semi-structured interviews, and analyzed through descriptive mixed methods.Results: Three Yakima Health District (YHD) employees and six Promotoras de Salud took the survey. Three YHD employees participated in the semi-structured interview process. The interview responses supported the survey results illustrating that with the assistance of Promotoras as a COVID-19 intervention, YHD programming was able to better provide Yakima County with COVID-19 education, resources for testing, vaccinations, and improve community resilience.Conclusion: Without the Promotoras, YHD could not have provided education to community members regarding COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites at the rates that they did. The program evaluation showed that Promotores de Salud are valuable public health partners to government agencies and communities and can successfully connect with high-risk community members to combat the spread of misinformation, disease, as well as extend the utilization of local resources.