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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Janna H. Brooks, MA, Division of Health Education and Promotion, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 1600 Clifton Road MS E-33, Atlanta, GA 30333, 404-498-0290, jbrooks4@cdc.gov and Virginia Sublet, PhD, RPh, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, 8436 Woburn Court, Orlando, FL 34786.
The Agency for Toxic Substances (ATSDR), a federal public health agency, works with communities to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances. ATSDR’s Division of Health Education and Promotion (DHEP) works to build the capacity of local health care systems to provide assessment and follow-up for community members’ health concerns related to environmental exposures to toxic substances. DHEP is developing a toolkit resource for primary care practitioners to use when assessing patients exposed to environmental toxicants. “A Quick Guide to Evaluating Environmental Exposures” is an initial resource created for this toolkit. The guide is a foldout brochure with many types of environmental information. It includes information on exposure assessment, components of an exposure history, guidelines for confirming diagnosis, and criteria to consider in assessing causation, as well as a list of information resources. Before disseminating the guide, ATSDR evaluated the brochure through individual in-depth interviews (IDIs) to determine the perceptions and opinions of physicians in primary care. IDIs were used in this study to obtain deeper insights from respondents than can be garnered from focus groups. Results of the qualitative research led to major revisions and new strategic directions for DHEP’s health care provider education efforts. Key issues addressed in the paper include bridging the public health and clinical perspectives as part of an overall health promotion strategy that uses social marketing concepts based on qualitative market research among health care providers. Results and ramifications of the study will also be discussed.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Communication Evaluation, Health Education Strategies
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
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.