Safety and health support for home care workers: The COMPASS randomized controlled trial

R. Olson, S.V. Thompson, D.L. Elliot, J.A. Hess, K.L. Rhoten, K.N. Parker, R.R. Wright, B. Wipfli, K.M. Bettencourt, A. Buckmaster and Marianna Marino

American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 10, 1823-1832

Abstract: Objectives. To determine the effectiveness of the Community of Practice And Safety Support (COMPASS) Total Worker Health intervention for home care workers. Methods. We randomized 16 clusters of workers (n = 149) to intervention or usual practice control conditions. The 12-month intervention was scripted and peer-led, and involved education on safety, health, and well-being; goal setting and self-monitoring; and structured social support. We collected measures at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months, which included workers' experienced community of practice (i.e., people engaged in a common activity who interact regularly for shared learning and improvement). Implementation occurred during 2013 and 2014 in Oregon. Results. In an intent-to-treat analysis, relative to control, the intervention produced significant and sustained improvements in workers' experienced community of practice. Additional significant improvements included the use of ergonomic tools or techniques for physical work, safety communication with consumer-employers, hazard correction in homes, fruit and vegetable consumption, lost work days because of injury, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and grip strength. Consumer-employers' reports of caregiver safety behaviors also significantly improved. Conclusions. COMPASS was effective for improving home care workers' social resources and simultaneously impacted both safety and health factors.

Keywords: controlled study; education; female; health behavior; health care personnel; health status; home care; human; in service training; male; middle aged; occupational health; Oregon; physiology; procedures; psychology; randomized controlled trial; safety; social support; standards, Female; Health Behavior; Health Status; Home Care Services; Home Health Aides; Humans; Inservice Training; Male; Middle Aged; Occupational Health; Oregon; Safety; Social Support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303327

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303327_6

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303327

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().