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

Abstract #113095

Gabriela Trevino¹, Lori Keeling Buhi, MPH², Desiree Rivers, MSPH¹, Kyrel L. Rowell, MPH³, Melanie Sarabia, BCH, BA¹, and Brian Rivers, PhD, MPH¹. (1) Texas A&M University, Center for the Study of Health Disparities, 112 Harrington Tower, TAMU 4222, College Station, TX 77843, 979-595-1706, gabriela_trev@hotmail.com, (2) Bryan-College Station Community Health Center, 3370 South Texas Avenue, Bryan, TX 77802, (3) Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A & M University, 4243 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843

Current research suggests the health education profession has a dearth of bicultural, bilingual health educators. Research also indicates that culturally appropriate, and more specifically, culturally tailored health education programming, is more effective than the provision of generic health information. The Bryan-College Station Community Health Center is a federally qualified health center providing primary and preventive health care to the medically underserved. The client base includes over 12,000 unduplicated patients; 58% are Hispanic/Latino and over 50% identify Spanish as their primary language. The need for culturally competent health educators in this setting is evident. The purpose of this session is to describe the adaptation of a diabetes self-management program, using cultural tailoring strategies, to meet the specific needs of the underserved, low-income, Mexican-American population at the Center. The diabetes self-management program includes individual education for patients with diabetes. The cultural tailoring of the program is directed at the individual level, accounting for the unique cultural characteristics of each patient. The approaches and processes used to adapt the program will be highlighted, including: provision of self-management education by a bicultural, bilingual health educator capable of understanding the Mexican-American culture as well as variations between individuals and within subgroups of the population; assessment of patients' individual cultural identity and characteristics, and use of cultural tailoring strategies to adapt the self-management messages based on identified cultural beliefs, identity and values of each individual patient. Finally, implications for other health education practitioners interested in tailoring their health education programming will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• • Describe the adaptation of a diabetes self-management program, using cultural tailoring strategies, to meet the specific needs of the underserved, low-income, Mexican-American population at a Community Health Center
• • Describe the use of a bicultural, bilingual health educator to tailor the self-management messages

Keywords: Cultural Competency, Hispanic

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.