The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #36419

Laurie Hoffman-Goetz, PhD, MPH, Department of Health Studies and Gerontology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Burt Matthews Hall, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada, 519 885-1211, lhgoetz@healthy.uwaterloo.ca, Charlene Shannon, MA, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada, and Juanne N. Clarke, PhD, Department of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, Canada.

Aboriginal peoples of Canada have poorer health status and experience greater disease burden than the general Canadian population (1,2). Although there are many factors contributing to health disparities, availability of accurate information can provide cues to action among at-risk populations. Newspapers are a common source for dissemination of health information to the public. Little is known about the coverage of chronic disease conditions in newspapers targeting Canadian aboriginal peoples (First Nations, Métis, Inuit). From a sampling frame of 21 aboriginal newspapers, 13 were identified using the following inclusion criteria: English language, available from 1996-2000, and held by the National Library of Canada. Newspapers were manually searched for articles that included the terms "cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or HIV/AIDS" in the title, or first or last paragraph. A total of 1,212 issues were searched with 298 health articles identified. Most articles were on diabetes (118 articles, 39.6%) or HIV/AIDS (92 articles, 30.9%), with fewer articles on cancer (55 articles,18.5%) and heart disease (28 articles, 9.4%). Less than one-third of all health articles contained mobilizing information (e.g., address or phone number to enable action), which was significantly less than expected by chance (c²₍₁₎=63.9;p<0.001). There were fewer articles on heart disease containing mobilizing information (6/28) compared with articles on other diseases (e.g., cancer: 17/55). These findings suggest uneven coverage of chronic disease conditions in aboriginal newspapers and limited mobilizing information to enable individuals to take health promotion action. [Research supported by SSHRC Canada]

Learning Objectives: From this poster session individuals will be able to

• Describe the volume and scope of health coverage in mass circulating print media from 1996-2000 that specifically targets Aboriginal Canadians.
• Understand the need for mobilizing information about cancer, diabetes, heart disease and HIV/AIDS in print media targeting Aboriginal populations in Canada.

Keywords: Media Message, Native Populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.