Creating a Communication Strategy to Encourage Ethnic Minority Groups to Seek Preventive Healthcare

Background:  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), racial and ethnic minorities encounter a number of barriers to accessing healthcare, including preventive care and chronic disease management services.¹ This disparity often leads to higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other adverse health outcomes.¹ There is a need for communication strategies that acknowledge and address this disparity through careful consideration of health and disease cultural beliefs and mental models in these communities. 

Program background: The Healthy Communities Coalition (HCC) received funding from the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to help Haitian, Cape Verdean, and African American community members in Brockton and Stoughton, MA access chronic disease prevention and management services.

Evaluation Methods and Results: CommunicateHealth conducted formative research with Haitian, Cape Verdean, and African American community members in Brockton and Stoughton, MA to identify their chronic disease prevention and management information needs and develop a content strategy to meet those needs. Research consisted of 3 focus groups with 16 community members and in-depth interviews with 4 community leaders. Interviews were conducted in participants’ native languages. In our focus groups and in-depth interviews, we found that:

• Churches are an essential part of these communities, and partnering with them offers a great opportunity to reach a wide cross-section of people
• Messages related to family resonate strongly with this audience
• Traditional health materials like websites and brochures are less likely to be effective in these communities because of technology and literacy barriers
• Many community members don’t see the value of preventive care and, as a result, wait until they’re very ill before seeing a doctor

Based on these findings, CommunicateHealth developed a set of messages related to the following themes that emerged from the formative research:

• Preventive care is a shared family responsibility
• There are tangible benefits of seeking preventive care

To disseminate the messages, CommunicateHealth recommended developing a series of posters for churches focused on preventive care messaging, along with church bulletin inserts that encourage community members to get regular preventive care. These posters hang in local churches, which are a central hub in African American, Cape Verdean, and Haitian communities. 

Conclusions: CommunicateHealth collaborated with the Old Colony YMCA — the lead agency for the Healthy Communities Coalition (HCC) — to conduct 3 material testing focus groups to evaluate whether the posters are easy to understand, engaging, attractive, and have a clear call to action. In general, participants found the posters and church bulletin inserts to be positive, eye-catching, attractive, and relatable. Participants were all able to identify the materials’ purpose and call to action. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  Plain language content paired with culturally relevant messaging and design intended to empower ethnic minorities to seek preventive healthcare have great potential for success. Understanding the mental models of the target audience and including them in the material development process is essential.  ¹ At A Glance 2016 Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community ... (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/aag/reach.htm