Co-creating a Peer Education program to improve skin health in older people from diverse communities: An innovation in health promotion.

OBJECTIVE: Chronic wounds, debilitating and costly to manage, are more common in older people. Prevention is possible through improving skin health. We developed, implemented and evaluated an innovative health promotion program to improve skin health of older adults.

METHODS: A one-hour, peer education program was co-created and delivered to culturally diverse community-dwelling older people. A mixed-methods evaluation approach comprised objective measures of skin health and barrier function at commencement and six weeks posteducation, and focus groups posteducation.

RESULTS: Seventy-three participants participated in the study (mean age 74.38 ± 11.80 years). Hydration significantly improved at follow-up for English speaking participants (t(27) = -2.90, P = 0.007). The majority of participants reported the education to be informative and useful in supporting behaviour changes.

CONCLUSION: The peer education program improved skin hydration in older English speaking individuals. Peer education may effectively deliver health promotion information in some groups.