Instrument and measures

The baseline health screening instrument included questions on demographic and health status characteristics that determined eligibility for referrals. Demographic measures were age, sex, ethnicity, primary language spoken at home, employment status, yearly household income, marital status, education, country of birth, and time living in the United States. Health status measures included self-reported health, BMI (measured as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared), blood pressure, smoking status, and health insurance. English language proficiency was self-rated on a scale of 1 to 4, with 1 being poor and 4 being excellent. The interview followed the National Institutes of Health–funded PhenX Toolkit protocols where available (17). CHWs used a scripted follow-up telephone interview to track changes in health behaviors and use of the resources provided. At the end of each interview, CHWs encouraged participants to follow through in making health behavior changes and using the health resources provided. When pre-existing Spanish versions of the questions were not available, researchers and CHWs collaborated to translate instruments into Spanish, with back translation into English to refine the accuracy of Spanish translations (18).