Improving Health and Science Literacy in a Latino Community

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Improving science literacy and health knowledge is essential to enhancing the overall health of diverse communities, public understanding of the importance of research and community participation in research. Non-English speaking communities are the most vulnerable to low rates of science and health literacy and most programs addressing science literacy issues are not tailored to the Spanish-speaking audience. Identifying the need to improve science literacy in the Latino community, an academic- community partnership has been established between Latino Public Radio and Brown University/ Women & Infants Hospital. We propose to develop a culturally sensitive program to increase science literacy program in a Spanish-speaking radio audience. After seeking community input about the specific health topics of interest, the curriculum will be developed to focus on science literacy through the discussion of the identified health topics. This program is geared towards increasing the community's understanding of clinical research and relevant health issues. Evaluating the impact of the program, including both science literacy and health knowledge, will allow us to understand whether or not using a radio medium is effective for a Spanish-speaking audience. Through this academic-community partnership, we plan to develop, deliver and evaluate a 10-week science literacy curriculum. The program, ESCUCHE (Evaluating the Spanish radio Community's Understanding of Clinical research and Health topics), will involve interactive sessions between the Spanish-speaking radio audience and expert teachers. The opportunity to listen to past programs will be made available through the website and by request to the radio station. The overall goal of this project is to increase science and health literacy in the Latino community. The specific aims of the project include: (1) Developing a science literacy program to be delivered to a Spanish-radio audience; (2) Developing and evaluating tools to measure the increase in science literacy in a pilot study including Spanish-radio listeners; (3) Developing tools to evaluate increases in health knowledge in the program participants: and, (4) Refining the program and evaluation tools for a larger Spanish-speaking audience. We hypothesize that delivering a science and health curriculum in Spanish to a Spanish-speaking radio audience will increase science literacy and health knowledge among listeners. This program has many potential benefits for the Latino community and the academic community including: increasing science literacy and health knowledge which may translate into better health care, increasing access to science information, increasing interest in science and health related professions, increasing the interaction between the scientific and lay communities to improve research methods in the community, and increasing participation in research. This study has the potential to improve public understanding of clinical research and scientific methods through health topics delivered by a trusted community-based physician. The approach used in this program has the potential to inform future projects and enhance collaboration among scientists, community members and the NIH.