Brief Report Co-creating a Peer Education program to improve skin health in older people from diverse communities: An innovation in health promotion Rajna Ogrin Royal District Nursing Service; and Austin Health, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Kathleen Brasher Council on the Ageing; and This Day & Age, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Jessica Occleston Royal District Nursing Service, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Jennifer Byrne Dermal Science and Therapy, Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 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. Practice Impact: Peer education for skin health may produce meaningful change in daily self-care behaviours that have the potential to reduce the development of chronic conditions. We suggest that research pursuing peer education as an avenue to promote prevention of chronic conditions is warranted. Key words: community, education, health promotion, skin, volunteers. Introduction The prevalence of non-healing ulcers increases as we age [1]. Ulcers can be painful, negatively affect quality of life, are costly to treat [2] and are the second most common reason for home nursing care [3]. However, simple self- help measures such as daily moisturising can maintain or improve skin health, minimising skin damage and reducing the significant health burden of ulcers in older people [4]. Peer education aims to effect change at the individual level by attempting to modify a person’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs or behaviours through the use of peers [5]. Peers share a common culture, language and knowledge about problems their community experiences, and when peers work with community members promoting health, they also share a common health issue [6,7]. Based on the evidence that peer education is an effective method of positive beha- viour change for chronic conditions [8], clinicians and aca- demics from a community home care organisation worked alongside volunteer peer educators from COTA Victoria, representatives from five culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities [9,10], and Victoria University Der- mal Therapy Unit, to develop the ‘Peer Education for Skin Health’ session. Applying the principles of co-creation [11], the aim was to create a peer education session to improve skin health literacy and to encourage self-care behaviours. The development of ‘Peer Education for Skin Health’ fol- lowed the six stages of translation standards [12] (Figure 1). Key evidence-based messages, simplified into four key points, were considered relevant and practical for older adults from all language groups and delivered as a one-hour session with- out technology. Simple handouts of key messages using photographs, including graphic skin injuries, and displays of relevant skin health products for participants to view or try during the session, were developed. Methods Design This study assessed the effectiveness of the ‘Peer Education for Skin Health’ session on behaviour change in diverse community-dwelling older adults. Outcomes were Correspondence to: Dr Rajna Ogrin, Royal District Nursing Service. Email: rogrin@rdns.com.au Australasian Journal on Ageing, Vol  No   2017 – © 2017 AJA Inc. DOI: 10.1111/ajag.12401 1