Effective Print Materials for "At-Risk" Hispanics
This guide is for developing effective cancer education print materials
for "at-risk" Hispanics. "At-risk" refers to those people
most in need of cancer education information. They are Hispanics who have
minimal access or exposure to mainstream health communication campaigns
due to limited literacy skills, limited English language skills, or limited
knowledge of where to obtain such information. It is of course erroneous
to assume that all Hispanics fall into a category of low-literacy and low
SES (socio-economic status). However, it is not feasible to address Hispanics,
or any group, at all levels of education and SES. We also recognize that
there are many cultural groups of Hispanics with different dialects and
customs. For the purposes of this guide, we have limited our focus to materials
aimed towards "at-risk" Hispanics.
The guidelines were developed by circulating over 100 examples of existing
Hispanic-oriented print materials among 34 persons with expertise in the
selection and the use of these materials. Each expert completed an assessment
instrument for at least 12 samples, including answering a question of whether
a sample would be effective to a level that would make them likely to use
it. These results were then tabulated in order to identify important characteristics
for effectiveness with Hispanic populations. Extensive details on the research
and statistical analysis can be found in Report 2: Project Report of Research
Underlying the Practical Guidelines for the Development of Print Cancer
Education Materials for At-Risk Hispanics.
This guide for use with at risk Hispanic populations builds upon the guidelines
for low-literacy materials put forward by the National Institutes of Health
in the publication Clear and Simple.(1) Clear and Simple, and its predecessor
Making Health Communication Programs Work: A Planner's Guide, are leading
publications in the field of health communication. The topic at hand is
refined to address the specific audience of at-risk Hispanics. This guide
emphasizes and adds to those guidelines in Clear and Simple which developers
can use in conjunction with our more targeted suggestions. Every effort
is made to reference Clear and Simple, so that its important components
can be incorporated into the development process. The following five steps
for developing effective materials are drawn from that earlier document
but now include additional suggestions for dealing with Hispanic populations.
1 U.S. Department of Human Services. Clear and Simple: Developing Effective
Print Materials for Low-Literate Readers. National Cancer Institute, NIH Publication No. 95-3594,
December 1994.
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