Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112710

Jennifer Rienks, PhD(c), Family Health Outcomes Project, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street Suite 365, San Francisco, CA 94118, 415 476-5283, Jenrienks@aol.com, Virginia Smyly, MPH, Health Promotion and Prevention, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 101 Grove St, San Francisco, CA 94102, Geraldine Oliva, MD, MPH, Family Health Outcomes Project, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California St, Suite 365, San Francisco, CA 94118, Linda D. Mack Burch, MPH, Family Health Outcomes Project, Depart. of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, Suite 365, San Francisco, CA 94118, and Judith A. Belfiori, MA, MPH, Family Health Outcomes Project, Dept of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street Suite 365, San Francisco, CA 94118.

African American infants in San Francisco suffer a mortality rate 2 -3 times higher than white infants, yet most African American residents were unaware of this. A baseline telephone survey of 800 African Americans, ages 18-64, found only 39.4% knew about the disparity and 28.5% were unaware that placing an infant on its back to sleep could reduce the risk of SIDS. The SevenPrinciples Project, funded through the CDC, conducted 3 social marketing campaigns to increase awareness. The campaigns focused on awareness of the disparity, the importance of proper sleep position and encouraging action to reduce infant mortality disparities. The same mediums were used to disseminate information in all campaigns and included ads on buses and at bus stops, poster, cards, brochures, handouts, church fans, and radio public service announcements. A follow-up telephone survey was conducted with 650 African Americans to assess the impact of the campaigns. Almost 62% report some exposure to campaign one, 48.5% to campaign 2, and 48.9% to campaign 3. Chi-square analyses reveal a statistically significant increase in awareness of the disparity (39.6 vs. 62.7, p<.0001, OR = 2.5, CI 2.1-3.2). While there was no overall significant increase in knowledge about proper sleep position, respondents who report any exposure to this campaign are more likely to know about sleep position (70.7% vs. 63.8%, p<.0001, OR = 2.2. CI 1.6-3.2). Materials used in the campaigns, the process for creating them, and additional data analyses on exposure to materials by age groups and gender will also be presented.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will learn the step necessary for designing and disseminating an effective social marketing campaign to increase awareness of disparities.
• Attendees will be able to describe how to plan an adequate evaluation of a community –based and targeted social marketing campaign

Keywords: Infant Mortality, Community-Based Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation