Closing Gaps to Address Lifespan Health: Considerations for Developing a Preconception Healthcare Training for Community Health Workers

Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who are embedded in their own communities and as linkages to care, decreasing health disparities for underserved individuals. The goal of this capstone project was to identify Michigan CHWs' knowledge gaps in the area of preconception healthcare. Through administering a training needs assessment to a sample of community health workers, the goal was to characterize knowledge gaps and make recommendations about what type of training would be most useful to them. The results of this needs assessment showed that the general state of self-reported knowledge about preconcept health among Michigan community healthcare workers is low. However, the barriers to incorporating preconception health into their work were also low. This needs assessment provides a foundation of information for developing the appropriate training for community health work workers to address preconception health concerns and raise awareness about the importance of preconception health in their communities.