Improving Health and Reducing Chronic Disease Disparities with Latinx Communities: Evaluating the Role of Documented Community-Based Intervention Participation.

Purpose: Limited evidence exists on the impact of participation in community-based chronic disease self-management and prevention programs on health disparities. The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of participation in the Healthy Here Wellness Referral System on existing disparities in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), systolic blood pressure (BP), and diastolic BP among Hispanic/Latinx adults compared with non-Hispanic White adults.

Methods: We merged administrative clinical and referral data from 2018 through 2022 for adult patients in six focus ZIP codes in New Mexico resulting in a sample of 1331 patients and used regression models to examine predictors of intervention participation as well as propensity-adjusted impacts of participation on HbA1c and BP outcomes.

Results: Non-Hispanic White patients who were referred to community-based programming but did not participate saw statistically significant increases in HbA1c. Hispanic/Latinx patients saw statistically significant decreases in HbA1c with referral alone, with no added benefit from program participation. The impact of participation differed statistically significantly (t(683) = 3.55, p < .001) between these two groups for HbA1c levels, as well as for systolic (t(958) = 2.11, p = .04) and diastolic BP outcomes (t(958) = 2.96, p = .003).

Conclusions: Results of this study support the promise of using centralized referral systems to co-produce health improvement in community settings. Mixed findings highlight the need for further uptake of theory-informed measurement in evaluations seeking to understand heterogeneous program impacts by race and ethnicity.