“They connected me to my health”: perceived benefits of an etiological cohort study led by community health workers in the Southwest Borderlands

Front Public Health. 2026 May 11;14:1736316. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1736316. eCollection 2026.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Community health workers occupy an increasingly prominent role in the broad sweep of community engaged and participatory action research approaches that center equitable and inclusive research practices and prioritize community needs. This study utilizes the theoretical lens of therapeutic landscape to explore the ways in which community health worker-led research may impact study participants based on data from a closing interview conducted among Mexican origin participants engaged in an etiological cohort study of stress and resilience along the US-Mexico border.

METHODS: This study builds upon a longstanding partnership between the University of Arizona and a community farmworker service organization to focus on chronic disease and mental health in Yuma County, Arizona. The community health workers were involved in all phases of this mixed methods study, including conception, design, methodology, data gathering, analysis, and dissemination. We recruited 282 Latino/a adult residents of southern Yuma County, Arizona using a randomized household door to door approach and data gathering occurred between March 2022-April 2024. The open interview question that informed this article was conducted among a subset of those who participated in the final timepoint of data collection (n = 192) thematically analyzed by study team members and descriptive statistics were calculated in R Statistical Software, Version 4.2.0 “Vigorous Calisthenics” for participant demographic characteristics.

RESULTS: Our findings suggest that participants experienced multiple benefits derived from their research interactions with CHW-Rs. Notably, these gains spanned several areas ranging from the immaterial experiences of emotional support and opportunities for novel self-reflection to the practical acquisition of health information and individualized health results. Taken in concert, participants reported that positive study experiences mobilized them to take tangible action to improve their own wellbeing in the areas of improved dietary and physical activity practices, greater rates of access of medical care, and prioritization of mental health needs.

DISCUSSION: Our analysis identified an important relational component of participants’ study experience that centered around how the community health workers developed an environment of care and trust with participants that inspired deep sharing and reflection and receptivity of new health information, all of which mobilized them to improve their health. These results imply the potential for participants to derive substantial gains in the context of both interventional and observational research which can help to bolster the inclusion of immigrant and displaced populations in the research endeavor.

PMID:42200123 | PMC:PMC13199304 | DOI:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1736316