Adapting a natural (lay) helpers model of change for worksite health promotion for women

Social network interventions that utilize informal systems of helping can b e an important strategy for health promotion change. This article describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a natural (lay) helping intervention for health promotion change, specifically designed for women i n small rural blue-collar worksites. One hundred and four women in four int ervention worksites were recruited as natural helpers, and received health and skill-building education over an 18-month period. Qualitative evaluatio n showed: (1) two patterns of natural helping for women, i.e. participation due to a specific health concern with either themselves or others in their personal networks, and participation due to a larger sense of the importan ce of health and prevention; (2) over time natural helpers expanded the dif fusion of health promotion information from close network members to cowork ers and were more likely to be approached by their co-workers for informati on; (3) group activities at the worksite, particularly around physical acti vity, increased over time; and (4) because of time constraints at the workp lace, written materials were a major way of spreading information to co-wor kers. This study shows that women can be recruited and trained to diffuse h ealth promotion information and provide support to co-workers for health be havior change.