The National Academies Press

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Pages 11-27

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From page 11... ... 11 1 Introduction As the 21st century begins, the nation is facing increasing concern about health problems, particularly chronic diseases such as diabetes, and escalating health care costs. Our society is becoming more diverse in every conceivable way, and diversity is often, though not always, associated with health disparities. Read the entire page →
From page 12... ... 12 SPEAKING OF HEALTH proving the Health of Diverse Populations, in response to requests from the Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health and the Board on Health Sciences Policy to examine the potential of health communication strategies to improve public health behaviors, especially among demographically and socioculturally diverse populations. Health communication strategies, for purposes of this volume, are defined as approaches that seek to persuade or motivate people to change their behavior in order to improve their health. Read the entire page →
From page 13... ... Introduction 13 Most campaigns are concerned about diversity and shape their message and placement based on age, gender, ethnicity, race, sexual preference, or other relevant personal variables. However, there is a striking lack of data available to answer essential questions about diversity -- for example, does a health communication effort that takes extra care in understanding and responding to the needs of a diverse audience show effects that are greater than if such efforts are not made? Read the entire page →
From page 14... ... 14 SPEAKING OF HEALTH supplemented by consultants in communication technology and ethics. The committee's specific charges were as follows: • Review existing theory and research applications in health communication and health behavior change, especially as they relate to culturally diverse populations, and define research areas that would benefit from expanded or new research efforts; • Consider up to three specific examples of health communication interventions to evaluate whether and how those strategies affect culturally diverse groups; and • Recommend how health communication strategies may be designed and implemented to achieve sustained gains in public health across cultural groups. Read the entire page →
From page 15... ... Introduction 15 versity is changed, then the basis for funding decisions will change. This uncertainty could result in considerable argument, which happened during efforts to change the census categories for racial/ ethnic identification. Read the entire page →
From page 16... ... 16 SPEAKING OF HEALTH outcomes, and presumably in health risks, for these groupings (Lynch and Kaplan 2000; House and Williams, 2000) Read the entire page →
From page 17... ... Introduction 17 ment, implementation, and evaluation of effective health communication interventions. Indeed, significant differences have been reported on various health measures for women and men, depending on sexual orientation (Institute of Medicine, 1999a; Dean et al., 2000) Read the entire page →
From page 18... ... 18 SPEAKING OF HEALTH The U.S. Population and Categorical Demographic Diversity The U.S. Read the entire page →
From page 19... ... Introduction 19 In 1995, approximately 49 million people (20 percent) in the United States lived in a household that had at least one difficulty in meeting basic needs, such as the inability to meet essential living expenses (e.g., pay utility bills, mortgage, or rent) Read the entire page →
From page 20... ... 20 SPEAKING OF HEALTH TABLE 1-1 Age-Adjusted Rates for 10 Leading Causes of Death by Ethnic Group -- Males (rate per 100,000) Non-Hispanic Non-Hispanic Disease All White Black Hispanic Heart 328.1 329.5 344.3 212.7 All cancer 251.6 251.4 350.1 151.4 Cerebrovascular diseases 62.4 60.5 89.7 44.6 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 58.1 61.3 51.4 27.3 Unintentional accidents 50.6 49.1 64.2 47.2 Pneumonia and influenza 28.0 28.0 33.0 18.6 Diabetes mellitus 27.7 25.0 50.1 34.5 Suicide 18.2 20.3 10.8 10.7 Kidney infections 16.2 14.8 33.8 12.9 Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis 13.7 12.7 15.6 23.0 SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2001) Read the entire page →
From page 21... ... Introduction 21 for both males and females based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program of the National Cancer Institute (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000) Read the entire page →
From page 22... ... 22 SPEAKING OF HEALTH The Role of Communication Recognizing the potential of verbal and nonverbal messages to modify beliefs and behavior, the public health community has been working with communication and media experts for more than 30 years to develop mass media campaigns to change health behavior. At the same time, behavioral scientists working in public health have developed communication strategies, including materials for individuals, programs at school and at work, programs delivered through health care providers, and large-scale campaigns. Read the entire page →
From page 23... ... Introduction 23 group members to optimize the impacts. In this regard, it is of particular policy interest to know whether targeting and tailoring communication interventions is especially useful in improving the health of populations with historical or current health or health care disadvantages. Read the entire page →
From page 24... ... 24 SPEAKING OF HEALTH One method for dealing with these kinds of concerns is to seek and maintain mutual collaboration with the community during all phases of the communication intervention process. This method will increase the likelihood that the messages and strategies of the intervention will unfold in a manner that is appropriate for the intended audience. Read the entire page →
From page 25... ... Introduction 25 cultural variation because individuals participate in or are exposed to different cultural processes. Third, we focus on key social science theoretical contributions to communication interventions and their dissemination. Read the entire page →
From page 26... ... 26 SPEAKING OF HEALTH sociocultural groups that differ in their beliefs and behaviors may respond to or be affected differently by communication interventions. The committee's strategy in preparing this volume was to use an interdisciplinary approach to examine the current state of health communication to diverse populations and to suggest fruitful approaches for developing improved interventions in the future. Read the entire page →
From page 27... ... Introduction 27 improving health across diverse groups differ from what we observe for these three areas. However, our selected cases represent major areas of national attention and provide the opportunity to examine different methodological, theoretical, and research approaches to the design and conduct of communication strategies to change health behavior. Read the entire page →

From page 11...

... 11 1 Introduction As the 21st century begins, the nation is facing increasing concern about health problems, particularly chronic diseases such as diabetes, and escalating health care costs. Our society is becoming more diverse in every conceivable way, and diversity is often, though not always, associated with health disparities.