The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #45818

Yanira Cruz Gonzalez, MPH¹, Phyllis McGuire², Joanne Gallivan, MS, RD³, and Jane M. Kelly, MD². (1) Director of Hispanic Health Programs, NCLR's Center for Health Promotion, National Council of La Raza Suite 1000, 1111 Nineteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036, 202-776-1745, ycgonzalez@nclr.org, (2) Division of Diabetes Translation, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy, NE, K10, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717, (3) NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, 31 Center Drive, Room 9A04, Bethesda, MD 20892-2560

The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) is a national partnership including governmental, non-profit, professional, and private sector organizations dedicated to developing and carrying out communication programs to improve the treatment and health status of people with diabetes. The Hispanic/Latino workgroup of the NDEP has created a nutrition campaign that features a popular bilingual meal planner that is colorful, captures diverse culinary traditions within Hispanic/Latino cultural groups, and emphasizes the importance of healthy eating. Opportunities to promote the importance of nutrition and physical activity are being explored through print and Spanish-language broadcast media. . The 2002, “Por Su Vida”, a radio commercial produced by this workgroup, was presented with the Gracie Allen Award by American Women in Radio and Television, Inc. In addition, the workgroup plans to recruit Latino Health Promoters (Promotores de Salud) for training in improved nutrition and increased physical activity promotion through culturally-appropriate behaviors (e.g., Salsa dance). One of the workgroup’s challenges is the translation of the NDEP’s Be Smart About Your Heart campaign which emphasizes the link between diabetes and heart disease and the importance of controlling blood pressure and cholesterol as well as blood sugar. Plans for the future include working with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s Promotores heart Health Program to incorporate diabetes messages.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the NDEP Hispanic/Latino nutritional campaign, including availablity of the bilingual meal planner.
• Identify the challenges of translating NDEP campaigns into culturally-appropriate materials for foreign-language ethnicities.
• Discuss the importance of collaboration with innovative community-based workers such as Promotoras in reaching target audiences.

Keywords: Hispanic, Diabetes

Related Web page: ndep.nih.gov

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.