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Background: COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a common but serious lung disease which over time makes it difficult to breathe. The number of people who have COPD is on the rise and it is now the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Program background:
In January 2007, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, launched the COPD Learn More Breathe Better® campaign to increase awareness and understanding of the symptoms of COPD, the benefits of earlier diagnosis and treatment, and to encourage at-risk individuals to discuss COPD with health care providers.
The campaign primarily targets adults age 45 and up, especially current and former smokers. To better understand this audience, Porter Novelli Public Services (PNPS) analyzed its 2008 ConsumerStyles survey[1] and held a series of mini focus groups. Results revealed that this target was less likely to actively and independently seek out health information than their counterparts who have never smoked, was not inclined to talk to their doctor about breathing issues, and was more likely than the population as a whole to listen to country music. With this research, the campaign developed the Country Conquers COPD program.
[1] Porter Novelli ConsumerStyles 2008, a consumer mail panel survey, was fielded May through June 2008 among Synovate Inc.’s Consumer Opinion Panel. Stratified random- sampling was used to generate a nationally representative sample of 20,000 potential respondents who received the ConsumerStyles survey. In 2008, a total of 10,108 people completed the survey.
Evaluation Methods and Results: The Country Conquers COPD program successfully leverages the target audience’s affinity for country music and related activities, taking the campaign out of the traditional health fair setting and bringing it to festival environments to reach the target audience where they are, doing what they enjoy, with those who matter most to them. Each event provides a COPD Learn More Breathe Better campaign presence onsite and engages local partners onsite to interact with event attendees, provide them with COPD educational materials, the opportunity to take a paper screener to gauge their risk for COPD. Events also feature the opportunity to take advantage of free onsite testing to assess lung health. Since the October 2009 launch, six Country Conquers COPD events have been conducted - directly reaching more than 22,000 individuals with COPD educational materials; allowing approximately 1,600 to gauge their risk via paper screener; and enabling more than 1,300 to take advantage of free spirometry testing onsite. To date more than 23 organizations have been involved with the program, including participants from the private sector such as Gibson Guitar, Oreck and Glaceau.
Conclusions: While a full evaluation will take place in 2011, initial evidence suggests that events at country music fairs/shows directly reach the intended target. And, that the target is receptive to the messages in a non-health venue.
Implications for research and/or practice: In addition, this program has demonstrated that useful community-based event models can be developed and passed on for partners to execute.