141st APHA Annual Meeting

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This is my life: Inspiring thoughts from stroke survivors

Wednesday, November 6, 2013 : 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM

Veronica Perez, MA , Division of Social Epidemiology, Department of Health Evidence and Policy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Eric Keith , Red Echo Group, New York, NY
David Huffman, MA , Red Echo Group, New York, NY
Leigh Quarles, MPH, CPH, CHES , Division of Social Epidemiology, Department of Health Evidence and Policy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Vanessa Nieto, BS , Division of Social Epidemiology, Department of Health Evidence and Policy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Laura Diamond, BA , Division of Social Epidemiology, Department of Health Policy and Evidence, Mount Sinia School of Medicine, New York, NY
Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH , Division of Social Epidemiology, Department of Health Evidence and Policy and Neurology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Each year, 700,000 people in the United States suffer a stroke. The third leading killer and leading cause of disability in the U.S., stroke and its risk factors disproportionately affect minority populations. Few interventions have been designed to focus on TIA and mild stroke patients, who most often have short in-hospital stays, hasty discharges, and poor vascular risk perception associated with their resolved or minimal deficit. The film, “This is My Life: Inspiring Thoughts from Stroke Survivors” is a narrative tool used in the Discharge Educational Strategies for Reduction of Vascular Events (DESERVE) study, an innovative discharge behavioral intervention aimed at secondary stroke prevention and risk factor control across different race/ethnic groups. On-camera interviews featuring 15 stroke survivors were conducted in English and Spanish to elicit stories focused on survivorship, hope, improved risk knowledge, medication adherence, and patient-physician communication. Our research team worked with documentary filmmakers to produce English and Spanish videos, with short versions to be watched by patients at discharge and full-length versions to be taken home. The film captures stroke survivors describing their organic personal experiences as they overcame physical, mental, and emotional challenges of recovery and relied on sources of motivation and support. While both versions maintain a focus on DESERVE's three themes of risk perception, medication adherence. and patient-physician communication, cultural differences emerged in outlook on recovery. The Spanish version portrays themes on fate and spiritual recovery and the English version touches more on self-determination. The film serves to positively reinforce the patient's intrinsic motivation to change their behavior by providing them a sense of self-actualization and self-efficacy. Such culturally sensitive approaches to empowering patients at discharge through incorporating narrative in interventions may be critical for motivating long-term behavior change and risk reduction in other chronic disease patients.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Advocacy for health and health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe stroke survivors recovery experiences and challenges. Demonstrate importance of risk knowledge, medication adherence, and patient-physician communication in long term risk reduction.

Keywords: Strokes, Behavior Modification

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As program coordinator for DESERVE, I was involved in conduct of interviews and during the editing process of both the English and Spanish language films.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.