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Abstract #162568

Jesus Sanchez, MS¹, Andel Nicasio, BA², Martha Londono, MPH, Epidemiolog², Alejandro Iglesias, MD³, Luis Barrios, PhD², Vanna Nicasio, Trained MD⁴, Luis Lasose, Trained MD⁴, and Mario Cesar Peralta, Trained MD⁴. (1) Local Evaluator, DWDC, 900 West 190 th street 12M, New York City, NY 10040, 212 927-1123, jas6@columbia.edu, (2) Latin@ CGEN-Project Coordinator, DWDC, 251 Fort Washington Ave. Suite # 1, New York City, NY 10032, (3) Division of Medical Genetics Department of Pediatrics, Beth Israel Medical Center, 350 east 17th Street 6BH10, New York, NY 10003, (4) Latin@ Consumer Genetics Education Network, Dominican Women's Development Center, 461 Audubon Avenue Apt 1, New York, NY 10040

The Latin@ Consumer Genetics Education Network (Latin@ CGEN) of the Dominican Women's Development Center developed two sets of educational curricula with the goal of standardizing a Community Health Worker (CHWs -“promotoras de salud”) intervention to provide genetics and health information to the Latino/a community in Northern Manhattan, NYC. One comprehensive curriculum was developed to help train the “promotoras” to build their capacity to advise and implement this project; while the second set of flip-charts for the CHWs focused on health education—equipping them with practical knowledge on genetics and health risk factors to disseminate at community organizations, beauty salons, social clubs, schools and living rooms throughout the community. The curricula were developed using the expertise of local Community Health workers, a geneticist, an adult health literacy consultant, translators, and trained MDs in Latin America and the project's advisory board composed of a diverse set of community members representing academic, community and religious leaders. The development of the curriculum followed a participatory approach in creating culturally appropriate educational materials on genetics, family health history, and reproductive health for the Latino/as. Some challenges faced in implementing the program were utilizing terminologies and educational strategies which were tailored to the community's interests and literacy, and including gender-neutral language in order to reach the community at-large. The Latin@ CGEN is one of five projects funded by March of Dimes and HRSA to help increase genetic literacy among Latino/as, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans.

Learning Objectives:

• Share lessons learned about developing culturally appropriate genetic health educational materials for Latino/as.
• Summarize core principles in developing health educational materials for Latinos.
• Highlight key linguistic and clinical decisions about levels of simplification
• How to select and involve a diverse Advisory Board in helping review educational materials

Keywords: Education, Genetics

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.