 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Mary Waterman, MPH, Health Policy, Arthritis Foundation, 4455 Connecticut Ave NW #305, Washington, DC 20008, 202-537-2257, mwaterman@arthritis.org
BRFSS data released in 2002 showed that 23.3 percent of Hispanic adults in America (nearly 6 million) have arthritis or chronic joint symptoms. Although there are only small differences in prevalence of arthritis between Hispanic and non-Hispanic populations, Hispanics have shown higher rates of activity-limitation due to arthritis. Furthermore, there is evidence that Hispanic patients under-utilize certain health services for arthritis and often face greater barriers to traditional sources of medical information. As the Internet continues to be an increasingly important source of health related information, and as Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group to access the Internet in the United States, providing this population reliable and accurate arthritis information via the web is imperative. In order to address the needs of this emerging population, the Arthritis Foundation created a culturally and linguistically appropriate website and materials for Spanish-speaking people with arthritis. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Arthritis Foundation’s Spanish website and materials. Evaluation components include number of visitors to the Spanish website, number of callers choosing the Spanish option for the Arthritis Foundation 800 telephone number, the number of Spanish brochures sent out from web, email, and postal requests, and customer satisfaction. Additionally, recommendations for future arthritis prevention and control initiatives targeted to this population will be discussed.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Arthritis, Internet
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.