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Abstract #161575

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Silvia Inéz Salazar, MPA¹, Holly A. Massett, PhD², Richard E. Manrow, PhD¹, H. William Killam, MA³, and Sue K. Feldman⁴. (1) Office of Communication and Education, National Cancer Institute, 6116 Executive Blvd., Ste 202, Room 2028, Bethesda, MD 20892-8334, 3014514070, salazarsi@mail.nih.gov, (2) Director, Operations Research Office, National Cancer Institute, NIH, 6116 Executive Blvd, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20852, (3) User-Centered Design, Inc., 20548 Deerwatch Place, Ashburn, VA 20147, (4) National Cancer Institute, Office of Communication and Education, 6116 Executive Blvd, Room 3017, Bethesda, MD 20892-8334

Latinos/Hispanics living in the United States experience higher cancer incidence and mortality rates that lead to health disparities. Latinos are one of the fastest growing Internet audiences that will reach 16 million users in 2007. Over the past year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has conducted formative research to design a linguistically and culturally appropriate Spanish-language version of the cancer.gov Web site. Identifying the cancer education needs of Latinos who use the Internet to find cancer-related health information was a research priority. This project reports the results of semi-structured in-depth interviews (N=10) with Federal government agency Web developers who manage Spanish language Web sites to inform the design of the new cancer.gov Spanish site. Information on developing Spanish Web sites in the areas of site development, content management, language and translation, Web site structure, and evaluation was collected to identify best practices and lessons learned. In addition, four iterative focus groups were conducted with monolingual and bilingual English and Spanish Internet users to identify the basic elements needed to create a culturally relevant online experience. The basic elements include creating and organizing category labels, as well as classifying graphic design preferences and functionality. Research findings suggest that cancer information for Spanish-speaking Web site visitors requires targeted bilingual and bicultural navigation approaches, user-centered organization, content prioritization and information architecture structure.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the various recommendations from Spanish-language Web site developers about how to organize and prioritize content for Latino users.
• Identify at least five best practices in designing cancer information Web sites for Hispanic/Latino audiences.
• Discuss future research directions that are suggested by the formative research findings.

Keywords: Cancer, World Wide Web

Related Web page: www.cancer.gov/espanol

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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