Making a Connection to Improve Latino Health
Case Study: Closing Health Gaps for Latinos with Cancer
LIVESTRONG has published the case study behind its successful Latino outreach campaign that seeks to close the gap in health disparities for Hispanics diagnosed with cancer.
The case study on the campaign, Navigating the Cancer Experience: Reviewing the Impact of LIVESTRONG‘s Navigation Services, indicates that in 2010 more than 25,000 Latinos were served through LIVESTRONG‘s direct support, print or online resources at LIVESTRONGEspanol.org.
Also, the number of Latino survivors accessing LIVESTRONG’s free, confidential navigation services increased by 40%.
The campaign also received an honorable mention for Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year at the recent PRWeek Awards.
“LIVESTRONG is honored to be recognized by PRWeek for our work on behalf of vulnerable and underserved communities,” said Katherine McLane, LIVESTRONG senior director for communications and external affairs, in a statement. “This public education campaign is helping to bridge the gap in healthcare resources for Hispanic cancer survivors and, equally important, addressing the need for culturally relevant communications to at-risk populations. By publically sharing the study behind our successful campaign, we hope people can use this information to benefit Hispanics affected by cancer.”
Cancer is the second leading cause of death for U.S. Latinos, accounting for about 20 percent of all deaths, statistics show. Research shows that many Latinos fail to recognize symptoms of cancer, which frequently leads to late detection and therefore poor treatment outcomes.
Factors contributing to the high rate of deaths from cancer among Latinos include: language barriers, cultural beliefs, among others.
To address this alarming trend, LIVESTRONG in November 2010 launched a national public education campaign to generate awareness of its free resources available in English and Spanish for Hispanics/Latinos affected by cancer.
The campaign—aided by the input of Sandra San Miguel de Majors, a research instructor at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, which partnered with LIVESTRONG through its National Cancer Institute-funded Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network—was comprised of various highly targeted outreach initiatives and anchored by a community health worker (or promotores) training program designed to empower cancer survivors by equipping them with the necessary resources.
LIVESTRONG now has a growing network of promotores who work in the community to help spread the word about these services, having trained 500 promotores in 16 states and plans to train 750 more in 2012.
Read the full case study here.
Thank you for highlighting this case study. It is one of the best public education campaigns that I have seen targeting the Latino community. It’s also nice to see PRWeek acknowledge the work of nonprofit organizations in communities of color. Too often the organizations honored in the Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year category haven’t developed campaigns aimed at improving communities like this one.
As I read the case study, I was really impressed with the market research component of this effort and the team’s apparent laser focus on achieving its end goal of raising awareness among Latinos about the early warning signs of cancer. It’s clear from reading the case study that the campaign designers started with a problem, established a clear set of goals and objectives, used research to guide the process and selected strong messengers who could connect with the target audience.
Often times, campaigns that focus on reaching communities of color ignore the fact that there’s a great deal of diversity within these communities. One of the things I like about this campaign is that the researchers acknowledge differences based on the level of acculturation, country of origin and geographic location. I believe the research also helped the campaign designers take a more audience-centric approach to their work; knowing the audience and tapping into their needs often means the difference between success and failure when it comes to public education campaigns. I think part of knowing your audience also includes determining the existing barriers that are creating the problem. In this case, the campaign designers used research to identify the barriers—cost and fear—so that they could clearly address them in the campaign.
Another important component in campaign design is choosing the right messenger to deliver the message, something this group did well by enlisting the help of Spanish-speaking promotores and physicians—two very trusted sources within the Latino community. I also like the fact that the campaign designers engaged a Latino celebrity cancer survivor to discuss her experience and spur conversations about cancer that might eliminate the stigma associated with the disease.