An Educational Intervention for Police and Firefighters for Elders at Risk: Limits of Education Alone as a Strategy for Behavior Change

Abstract

As part of a research project aimed at the health care needs of the vulnerable community–dwelling elderly, an educational intervention was delivered to police and firefighters in worksite settings. A single educational intervention proved insufficient to produce lasting attitudinal and behavioral change as measured by follow-up surveys 3 and 6 months after the educational intervention. The data highlight the difficulty of using educators external to an organization to drive attitudinal and behavioral change within the organization.

This study was supported by Grant Number 5 P20 MD 524-2 from the National Center of Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Notes

In each case the negative z scores correspond to a less positive response by those who answered only at T1 (the nonrepeaters) compared to the response at the select time point (T1, T2, or T3), of those who answered the survey more than once (the repeaters)