Community Health Workers Promote Health Literacy and COVID-19 Vaccine Equity.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial/ethnic minority residents of Prince George's County were disproportionately affected by the virus. This report from the field details an intervention that trained community health workers recruited from racial/ethnic minority communities to promote COVID-19 vaccination and health literacy among racially/ethnically diverse communities.

Increasing Access to Cardiac Rehabilitation Services Among Disadvantaged Populations.

The Prince George's County Health Department encountered several challenges to increasing access to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) services among disadvantaged populations. They include excessive patient out-of-pocket costs; requirements that CR orders must be signed by a physician; provider reluctance to refer patients to CR, with most primary care providers preferring to refer clients to cardiologists for the latter to determine whether the patient needs CR referral; limited availability of CR programs; and difficulty identifying patients eligible for CR services. Discussions with other local health departments and public health practitioners indicate that these challenges are not unique to Maryland but are indicative of policy and system barriers that prevent the optimal delivery of cardiovascular health services.

Using Community Health Workers to Address Barriers to Participation and Retention in Diabetes Prevention Program: A Concept Paper.

Objective: The PreventionLink of Southern Maryland is a 5-year project to eliminate barriers to participation and retention in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) lifestyle change program to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes in adults with prediabetes. This is the study to identify the obstacles to participation and retention in the DPP lifestyle change program among high burden populations and learn how CHWs have reduced the identified barriers to participation and retention for high burden populations.

Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to conduct this literature review.