A Test of Community Driven Pandemic Flu Preparedness Messaging

Purpose: Effective community engagement for pandemic influenza risk communication is limited in the ethnically diverse communities. Furthermore, how messages developed primarily with community leader participation compares with messages derived from traditional public health authorities (i.e. limited community involvement) is unknown. This study assesses community's ability to understand, retain, and follow recommendations regarding pandemic influenza when community experts derive the message versus public health experts.

Methods: The New York City public health authorities have developed a pandemic flu community education program. A group of Pakistani and Orthodox Jewish community leaders living in Brooklyn, New York derived a community specific pandemic flu message with the same objectives as the public health authorities. In March/April 2009 focus group sessions, stratified by ethnicity and gender, will be held with Pakistani and Orthodox Jewish community members in Brooklyn, New York. The groups will be randomly assigned to receive either the public health authority message or the community derived message. A short baseline survey will be administered pre-intervention. Focus group discussions will assess message understanding, trust, and ability to follow recommendations. Follow up group discussions six weeks later will assess for message understanding, retention, and behavior change.

Results: We expect to find that the pandemic flu message derived with community leader participation results in greater message understanding, trust, and behavior change in ethnically diverse communities, as compared to the message developed by New York public health authorities.

Conclusion: Community leader involvement is essential for effective disaster communication and preparedness in a diverse urban population.