The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #57556

Matthew W Kreuter, PhD, MPH¹, CS Skinner, PhD², Karen Steger-May, MA³, Cheryl Holt, PhD⁴, Eddie Clark, PhD⁵, Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD¹, and Dawn C. Bucholtz, MA, MPH⁶. (1) School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, 429 Salus Center, Saint Louis, MO 63104, (314) 977-8132, kreuter@slu.edu, (2) Medical Center, Duke University, Box 2949, Durham, NC 27710, (3) Division of Biostatistics, Washington University, 660 S. Euclid, Campus Box 8067, St. Louis, MO 63110, (4) School of Public Health, St. Louis University, 401 Salus Center, St. Louis, MO 63104, (5) Psychology, St. Louis University, 214 Shannon Hall, St. Louis, MO 63104, (6) St. Louis University, 244 S. 21st Street, Terre Haute, IN 47803

The evidence base supporting the use of tailored communication is built almost solely on intervention studies in which messages were tailored on selected constructs from a handful of health behavior theories. This study sought to determine whether the reactions to such tailored messages could be enhanced in a population of African American women by also tailoring on four cultural constructs: religiosity, collectivism, racial pride, and time orientation. In a randomized trial, 1,227 women from 10 urban public health centers received three issues of a women’s health magazine on cancer prevention tailored to each individual woman based on either behavioral construct tailoring (BCT), culturally-relevant tailoring (CRT) or both BCT and CRT (COMBINED). Follow-up interviews conducted at 1 and 6 months post-baseline found that BCT, CRT, and COMBINED magazines led to very similar and positive reactions from participants. Where group differences were identified, it appeared that CRT magazines may have initially obscured the cancer focus of the magazines, but over time this difference disappeared and CRT magazines were better liked. Implications of these findings for developing and understanding the effects of tailored cancer communication programs are discussed.

Learning Objectives:

Those who attend this presentation will be able to:
• Understand the difference between behavioral and cultural tailoring or health messages.
• Describe ways in which reactions to different types of tailoring vary in a population of African American women.
• Critically evaluate the relative importance of behavioral and cultural factors in developing effective health communication.

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.