136th APHA Annual Meeting (October 25-29, 2008): Developing a Social Marketing Campaign to Raise Awareness of Hepatitis B-related Disparities in Korean Immigrants of New York City

Monday, October 27, 2008: 11:30 AM

Jinny Jihyun Park , Public Health Program, Korean Community Services, New York, NY

Eunjoo Chung, MSW , Public Health Program, Korean Community Services, New York, NY

Ethan Kim , Public Health Program, Korean Community Services, New York, NY

Shin Son, phD , Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Flushing, NY

Simona Kwon, DrPH, MPH , Institute of Community Health & Research, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY

Mariano Rey, MD , Center for the Study of Asian American Health, NYU Institute of Community Health and Research, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY

Multimedia recording

The Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc (KCS) is the oldest and largest Korean community-based organization in the NYC area. KCS has been an active partner in the Asian American Hepatitis B Program, a comprehensive hepatitis B screening, vaccination and treatment program, since 2003. During that time, a total of 2,700 Korean immigrants have been screened, and 960 have been vaccinated and 200 patients infected have been in treatment. An HBV prevalence rate of close to 5% was found compared to 0.3% in the general U.S. population. Korean Americans face significant HBV-related disparities. In order to raise community awareness and education on this issue, KCS is launching a social marketing campaign by creating three television and radio ads to illustrate the dangers of the disease, effectiveness of screenings and the availability of culturally competent prevention and treatment services. Using media education will be highly effective in the Korean community where people rely heavily on Korean language ads to receive information on social, political and health-related information. Focus group methodology with community members will be conducted to help inform the development of the media campaign and to ensure that the resulting product is community-driven. The effectiveness of the broadcasts will be assessed by monitoring the increased volume of calls, the source of referral, and health behavior change. By the end of the session, the participants will learn about how to apply social marketing technique to address health disparity, and the burden of hepatitis B in Korean community.

Learning Objectives:
learning objectives: about how to apply social marketing technique to address health disparity and the burden of hepatitis B in Korean community.

Keywords: Hepatitis B, Social Marketing

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Jinny Jihyun Park is Director of Public Health Program at the Korean Community Services (KCS). Currently, Ms. Park oversees 11 various health programs including Asian American Hepatitis B Program, Breast Cancer Project, Tobacco Cessation, Health Care Access Program, National Immunization Project, Immigrant Health Care Access and Advocacy Collaborative, as well as various preventive health education and immigrant health advocacy projects supervising 12 staff members. Ms. Park’s one of great highlights is the creation of Hepatitis B program that helped over 2,800 Koreans, providing screening, vaccination and treatment services since 2005. Her department also developed a strong network with about 100 volunteers of doctors, nurses, and members of the community who have all volunteered their services to this program. KCS Public Health Program enhanced the health care access in Korean community by implementing the programs of applying for free and low-cost government health insurances to more than 2,000 community members, developing of a flu vaccine program that reached over 3,500 seniors yearly, and the 4 educational series of Diabetes class program for Korean community. KCS also organized annual health fairs for the Korean community with nearly 500 in attendance at each event. In addition, she provided professional editorials and broadcast interviews to all local media that aimed at eliminating stigma and encouraging Korean immigrants to take advantage of the programs that were available. Ms. Park has also been integral in city and state-wide advocacy efforts in the areas of welfare reform and language access. She has contributed to various networks that made great advancements in welfare reform for recent immigrants and making linguistic and cultural competency a standard in providing medical care for non-English speaking patients. As a result of all efforts, on September 13, 2006 a new state regulation was enacted (under Title 10, Sections 405.7 and 751.9) requiring all private and public hospitals in New York to provide communication assistance. Under her direction, KCS is also instrumental in a city-side anti-smoking, and anti-second hand smoke campaign. She focused the programs on prevention and education especially for youths and young adults by providing summer youth internship program, and nicotine patches to our community. She also acted as a liaison for constituents to educate elected officials on the hazards of second hand smoke. Ms. Park has been elected to be a steering committee member for the annual Asian American Health Conference at NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health Institute since 2004 and is an active member with the NYC Coalition for a Smoke Free City in New York City Department of Health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

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.

See more of: Innovative Research Methodologies Addressing Asian & Pacific Islander Health
See more of: Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of APHA

186830 Developing a Social Marketing Campaign to Raise Awareness of Hepatitis B-related Disparities in Korean Immigrants of New York City