Targeting Latina and African American Women with Culturally Appropriate Tools: Creative Use of Telenovelas and Text Messaging

Background: Text4baby and the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Women’s Health (FDA-OWH) joined forces to create communication tools that are of cultural affinity with the Latino and African-American communities. A Telenovela and the Text4baby SMS service were used to promote information and resources for pregnant women with a special emphasis on safe medication use during pregnancy.  A short Telenovela was created in both English (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXPiIIzvSdo&list=UUaGRiF3Z9dhJOVjrMSiYV8Q)  and Spanish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_U5kjKknFY&list=UUaGRiF3Z9dhJOVjrMSiYV8Q)  under the auspice of FDA in order to tell the story of two friends who share tips and received medical advice from providers on pregnancy and resources (i.e., Text4baby, and FDA’s Safe Medication Registry). Co-branded materials were also developed and distributed to the public and community partners through USA.gov and at various conferences during the 2013-2014 calendar years. A social media campaign was launched via Twitter chat, which included the support of MotherToBaby, a service of the non-profit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists.  Continuous promotion on other media channels like Facebook and YouTube facilitated the reach and success of the campaign.  

Program background: Text4baby is a free mobile messaging service, launched in 2010, that provides timely health information in English and Spanish via cell phone to women during pregnancy and through their baby’s first year. Text messaging provides an opportunity to address health inequalities for populations at the highest risk for poor health outcomes - low-income and young women, particularly those who identify as Hispanic or African-American. Compared to their older and white counterparts, young adults, Hispanics, and African-Americans are more likely to own a cell phone, text more frequently, and are more likely to do most of their online browsing on their mobile device. Among U.S. 18-29 year-old cell phone owners, 95% send or receive text messages; and 79% of African Americans and 83% of English-speaking Hispanics text. Text4baby is a public-private partnership with over 1,200 national, state and local organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. External evaluations show Text4baby is facilitating interaction with health providers, improving adherence to appointments, strengthening access to health services, and participants are significantly more likely to report they are better prepared for motherhood compared to non-participants.

Evaluation Methods and Results: This partnership between Text4baby and FDA OWH has been evaluated based on the accessibility of the materials within the Spanish and English-speaking communities. Over 10,000 views of the YouTube videos and over 168,000 tearpads have been distributed by FDA, Text4baby and our community partners.

Conclusions: The partnership has been successful in helping raise awareness about safe medication use during pregnancy and the Text4baby service. The video and tearpads helped promote the service broadly.  The keys to a successful Telenovela episode need further exploration, since the true reach of the videos and materials is difficult to absolutely quantify.

Implications for research and/or practice: A larger number of public-private partnerships should be explored in order to disseminate information and resources to the public.