Prince George's County Health Enterprise Zone: Formative research findings for a community created health literacy campaign

The Health Enterprise Zone (HEZ) aims to improve health outcomes in zip code 20743 by developing and promoting five Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH). Capitol Heights, Maryland (zip code 20743) suffers disproportionately from high rates of low birth weight, poverty crime, late/no prenatal care, and teen birth, when compared to the rest of the County and the state of Maryland. There are few primary care services and even fewer medical specialists in the zip code. The PCMHs will increase access to quality health care and will allow for comprehensive services to be utilized as needed by residents. In addition to the PCMHs, the County’s HEZ includes a novel health literacy initiative that will be created in partnership with community members, community-based organizations, and local businesses. The HEZ Health Literacy Campaign is guided by a community-based steering committee that will develop activities to promote and increase skills needed to understand the new health care services. The community-based health literacy campaign will create an empowered consumer base that can effectively utilize the health care services that will be provided. As an imperative first step, formative research will be conducted spring and summer 2014, during which residents will be recruited for focus groups and interviews to provide feedback on the design, materials, and messages of the health literacy campaign. Seven focus groups will be conducted, with parents and older adults who are residents, and with health care providers and allied health workers who serve the communities. The groups will meet at diverse locations across the zip code area, making it more accessible for residents to attend groups. Refreshments and childcare will be provided during the groups, which are two hours long. Approximately 70 participants will be recruited for the focus groups, and discussions during the groups will be audiotape recorded in order to allow for detail and for transcribing later. The proposed presentation will focus on findings from the research, which will identify factors that help successfully develop a community-based health literacy campaign to advance the use and success of PCMHs. The results presented will encourage and enable health care and public health professionals to create a culturally competent, health literacy campaign to increase adherence to preventive measures and lower risk of chronic disease among community members.