Development of a Participatory Health Communication Intervention: An Ecological Approach to Reducing Rural Information Inequality and Health Disparities

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Health Commun
• Personal Author:
  ESTRADA, ERENDIRA ; RAMIREZ, A. SUSANA ; GAMBOA, STEPHANIE ; DE HERRERA, PAULA AMEZOLA
• Description:
  A strong and diverse communication infrastructure is essential for communication to improve health. When that infrastructure is weak, health information fails to reach appropriate audiences; this is a component of information inequality that contributes to health disparities. Approaches to addressing information inequality have either focused on individual-level barriers or exclusively on changing the information environment. Largely missing from information inequality interventions is a multilevel, ecological approach consistent with the ways in which information inequality affects health. This study addresses that gap by describing a participatory intervention in a rural, majority-Latino community. Previous work identified a weak information infrastructure as a major barrier to health: Residents struggled to find timely, relevant information, while stakeholders faced challenges knowing how to reach diverse audiences with critical health-related information. We employed participatory health communication asset mapping to identify health communication resources - safe, trusted spaces, and places - that served three distinct communication functions: informational (i.e., where health information can be provided), conversational (i.e., where residents feel comfortable discussing health issues), and connection (i.e., where a relationship exists). Through a six-step process, community leaders and residents identified communication resources and collaborated to create a communication resource map. We discuss how this study advances the theoretical understanding of integration of culture-centered and ecological approaches for communication to reduce health disparities.
• Subjects:
  Community Participation Ecology Female Health Communication Health Status Disparities Humans Male Middle Aged Rural Population
• Source:
  J Health Commun. 23(8):773-782
• Pubmed ID:
  30307838
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10069293
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K01 CA190659/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U58 DP005710/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  23
• Issue:
  8
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a950166ef86136aa036e19ea9fcc62f361a347f31c5d847338766b112bf969f9bb9a3e4a9b00f96dd45eaf44582e4ce99b3f46b747e460cb90615a24b66152a4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/126580/cdc_126580_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 985.34 KB ]