Using Social Marketing Principles to Reach People with Limited Health Literacy ― What Works

1. Using Social Marketing Principles to Reach People with Limited Health Literacy― What Works Cynthia Baur, Ph.D. National Center for Health Marketing

2. Presentation Overview • Consumers – Who are they? • Reaching Consumers with Limited Health Literacy- Challenges/Barriers • Health Marketing • Using the Marketing Mix to Achieve Success- Outreach Opportunities

3. Who Uses Products and Services? • Patients? • Audience segments? • People who need to change a health behavior? • Consumers do. • (This slide and next 4 slides courtesy of Todd Phillips, AED)

4. About Consumers • They have choices. • They make decisions. • They evaluate based on needs and wants. • They are not passive recipients of information.

8. 90 millionAmericans would have trouble with this.

9. Literacy “An individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." (National Literacy Act of 1991) Health literacy “The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Healthy People 2010) Definitions

10. What is the Truth? • Everyone has difficulty understanding health information at some point regardless of their literacy level. Contributing factors include: • Complexity of information • Unfamiliar scientific/medical jargon • Demands of navigating healthcare system • Stressful/unfamiliar situation • Limited health literacy is not just a consumer problem, but also a “systems” problem

11. The Bottom Line Only 12 percent of adults have Proficient health literacy. In other words, nearly 9 out of 10 adults may lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. (2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Study)

12. What is the Connection between Social Marketing and Improving Health Literacy? Consumer Experience and the “do-ability” of our recommendations

13. Who Needs Extra Consideration? • Some groups face additional challenges that require attention: • Older adults • Those who are poor • People with limited education • Minority populations • Persons with limited English proficiency (LEP)

14. Challenges/Barriers • Identifying consumers • Communication • Language barriers • Cultural differences

15. Identifying Consumers • You can’t tell by looking • Limitations to using existing assessment tools • No ‘gold standard’ for measuring health literacy (Parker et al., 1999).

16. Communication • Information delivery • Complexity of information • Information processing/interpretation • Individual communication/learning styles

17. Language Barriers Los estudios indican que una de las razones por las cuales los padres que hablan español no hacen uso de los centros de control de envenenamientos es la barrera del idioma. Research has shown that one reason Spanish-speaking parents do not utilize poison control centers is due to their fear of a language barrier1. 1Kelly N., et al. Effects of Videotape to Increase Use of Poison Control Centers by Low-Income and Spanish-Speaking Families. Pediatrics 2003; 111;21-26

18. Cultural Differences • Cross-cultural gaps between professionals and customers • Understanding differences in values, beliefs, practices, attitudes, traditions • Lack of customer-centered services • Experiences leading to distrust

19. How Do We Use Social Marketing to Achieve Success?

20. Health Marketing Health Marketing involves creating, communicating, and delivering health information and interventions using customer-centered and science-based strategies to protect and promote the health of diverse populations (CDC, 2005). A multi-disciplinary area of practice.

21. CDC Health Marketing Model Audience research, Formative research, Public engagement, Partner engagement Products: CDC’s Research, Science, Evidence- based- advice Customers: “The Public” Individuals Institutions Communities US pops Global pops Customers: Health profs Partners Translating research to practice, Health communication and marketing )

22. Key Concepts of Health Marketing • Focus on consumers • Understand consumers’ needs and wants • Influence action • Marketing Mix- The four P’s • Competing behaviors • Exchange

23. Take a customer-centered approach Who will do what differently? Who’s more at risk for poisoning? What’s the Epi-data for your PCC service area? Which target behaviors are most important? Who can you influence most effectively? What do they want and care about? What do they struggle with? Opportunity 1: Know the Customer

24. Audience Barriers/Benefits • Barriers Consider real or perceived costs, access, confusion, inconvenience, beliefs, policies, program features, cultural practices, etc. that stand between your audience and the desired behavior • Benefits Describe what your audience should perceive as the key benefit to taking the desired action Statement: If I (do the desired behavior), then I (get some benefit)

25. Opportunity 2: Offer a Better Product • Involve your consumers • How can you add simplicity? credibility? authenticity? • How can you adjust your program/ system/relationships – not just your messages? Is the call-to-action easy to understand& process? Will it help people make better decisions about their health?

26. Opportunity 3:Improve Distribution • Choose the right place and promotion strategies

27. Percentage of Adults with Below Basicor Basic Health Literacy Who Get Little or No Health Information From the Following Sources Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute for Education Sciences

28. Opportunity 3:Improve Distribution • Choose the right place and promotion • Develop/strengthen partnerships • Lay health educators/Promotores • Community-based workshops/Health fairs • Community organizations/churches • Hospitals (ED), clinics, medical facilities • Retailers- WalMart, Lowes, Home Depot Do your consumers know why/how to obtain your services/products?

29. Opportunity 4:Conduct Evaluation • Evaluation starts with you • How health literate is your work environment? Practices? • Are your projects based on health literacy/health marketing principles/concepts? • How likely is it that your consumers will be able to obtain, process, understand, and make decisions?

31. Questions? http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing