Family-Oriented Community Clinic: Impact of Regular Education on Health Literacy and Self-Care

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the impacts of regularly scheduled education and health clinic sessions on individual’s health outcomes and self-care. Subjects: Tucson community members who are participants of Project Taking Charge and have attended more than three clinic sessions during the six-month study period. Methods: A retrospective review of a central database was used to collect baseline characteristics, blood glucose, A1c, blood cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI and weight. These clinical values were then used to assess participant clinical health outcomes. The questionnaire surveys distributed at the last clinic session were collected and used to analyze the improvement in participant understanding of self-care. Results: For weight, a 1.5% decrease from 186.1 (±50.7) to 183.3 (±50.4) pounds (p=0.012) was observed to be statistically significant. In response to the importance and the frequency of different self-care questions, participants had an improved perspective on the importance of exercise by 0.9 scale (p=0.008), a better understanding of having a balanced nutritious meals by 1.34 (p=0.0002), proper hand-washing technique by 0.54 (p=0.027), and eating at home more often by 0.31 (p=0.039) compared to baseline. Conclusions: Participant responses reflect positive changed perceptions of exercise and healthy lifestyle choices. Although post-clinical values for BMI, fasting blood glucose, A1c, systolic blood pressure, and blood cholesterol levels, did not meet p<0.05 statistical significance, the trend towards improved cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and blood pressure levels indicate there may be some benefits attributed from participation in the clinic project.