Sad

Such a depressing week. No school, no work. Smoky air and horrible stories of families who lost everything in the wildfires. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their home. Although I was not personally affected by the fires, I have many classmates who were evacuated and work with many families whose homes were destroyed. It's been a horrible experience, but it's great to see how much the community has come together to help those in need. There have been more volunteers than volunteer opportunities and the blood bank vans have been overwhelmed with people wanting to donate blood. Can't wait for this to be over with.

Walking schoolbus!

This week we presented our first "Mini Project." I love my project and the idea behind "Walking School Bus," but my group has had a very difficulty time reaching members of our target audience. We are trying to meet with the parents of students who attend Montgomery Middle School in Linda Vista, a low income area known for its ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and religious diversity. The goal of "Walking School Bus" is to get students to walk to school together in groups, in order to increase daily physical activity and safety. The few parents we have interviewed have said safety is a major concern and determinant in allowing their children to walk to school. Most of the parents also said that they would allow their children to walk if they had adult supervision. Although we have not yet interviewed any students, I think the idea of adult supervision is going to be somewhat of a conflict. I highly doubt that the students (especially 8th graders) will be excited about the thought of walking to school with one of their parents supervising. But, we'll see. We finally received information about meetings and events that will be taking place at the school and throughout the community, so I am hoping we will have better luck reaching parents. I was very surprised to learn that this school does not have a busing system--- which definitely helps our campaign-- and how unsafe Linda Vista is viewed by its community members. We received results from a Safe Passage Student Survey taken in March of 2007, and about 50% of all students at Montgomery Middle School feel unsafe walking to and from school. Sixth through eighth grade students reported being harassed by gang members, engaging in physical fights, and being threatened with a weapon. Others reported witnessing shootings, stabbings, and drug transactions. When I first arrived at Montgomery Middle, it wasn't nearly was "scary" as I had imagined. I saw children playing in the neighborhood and students walking to school. However, as I was driving home after the PTSO meeting, I passed by the elementary school and stopped at a four way intersection. The car to my right totally ignored the stop sign and almost ran over a teeny tiny little elementary school boy walking to school (alone). I felt so bad for the little boy... until he turned around and gave the speeding car the finger!

Health lit

This week's class was by far my favorite class of the entire semester. Yesterday, we learned about health literacy-- obtaining, processing, and understanding health info. We also watched "In Plain Language," a video created by the Harvard School of Public Health to raise awareness about the need for effective communication in medicine and public health. I loved it. I was amazed at the number of Americans who do not understand health information, and the video definitely made me appreciate my education. I had no idea that ~ 50% of Americans have low literacy skills. The personal stories told by students from an adult learning center were fascinating, and I couldn't help but want to help them. In the video, the students describe how limited literacy has affected their health. For example, one woman did not know what "twice daily" meant. She wasn't sure if this meant twice in the morning, twice at night, or at different times throughout the day. Another man explained that when answering questions on a health survey, he often answers "no" to questions he really just doesn't understand in order to avoid embarrassment. One woman accidentally got a hysterectomy, and another woman went to the store to find cough drops without sugar for her diabetic husband, but didn't know that fructose and glucose were sugars. The video was extremely interesting, but very sad at the same time.

"In Plain Language" also touched on the need for health care professionals to use language that can be understood by patients. Many times clinicians forget that not everyone has had the same schooling, and that the vocabulary they use may be confusing or misunderstood. This reminded me of a conversation I had with my neighbor-- a pretty intelligent guy might I add. He asked me what my thesis topic was and I explained that I was looking at house rules in relation to TV viewing while eating meals and its association with child BMI. He gave me a confused look and asked what BMI meant. 'What? Who doesn't know what BMI is?' is the first thing I thought. "Body Mass Index. Duh." is the first thing I said. I soon realized, as a econ major, my neighbor doesn't talk about promoting healthy lifestyles, behavior change, BMI, etc. etc. on a daily basis. When he still didn't understand Body Mass Index, I simplified it by using "plain language" and said, "basically body fat." Then he got it.

After the video we played with a health literacy program called SMOG... so much fun! This site determines the readability level of written material, and helps match the reading level of health information with the reading ability of target audiences. I liked it.

It's the end of Module 2-- Know Your Target Audiences-- and my top three learnings were the importance of segmentation to categorize and understand your target audience, the effects of low literacy on health, and the drastic need to improve health literacy in the United States. I thought Rocio's presentation on hypertension was amazing, and it gave me a much better understanding of what we should be doing for our group projects. I enjoyed reading "Is There a Hard-To-Reach Audience?" and thought Dervin's "alternative conceptualizations" to preconceptions of "hard-to-reach" individuals were fascinating. As far as designing health campaigns, I learned that effective communication should be viewed as an exchange between participants and that engaging members of your target audience is necessary to clearly understand them. I also enjoyed VALS, PRIZM NE, and SMOG-- all of which I am sure I will continue to use!

Vals and prizm ne

This week we learned about VALS and PRIZM NE, two online segmentation tools used to categorize individuals and help businesses create more effective campaigns. While the VALS survey segments individuals based on personality traits, PRIZM NE uses zip codes to describe an area's demographic characteristics, lifestyle preferences, and consumer behaviors. I loved the PRIZM NE website and spent a good amount of time entering various zip codes of cities in which I have lived. When I entered 92109, the typical stereotypes of PB were shown in its segments. These segments included "City Startups," "Up & Comers," and "Brite Lites, Lil City." The population was described as young, college graduates interested in athletic activities, nightlife entertainment, cafes, blind date MTV, and snowboarding. I entered 92648 for home in Huntington Beach and got a little homesick! The stereotypes of Orange County were a bit much but pretty true and made me laugh. The segments for this area included "American Dreams," "Money and Brains," and "Bohemian Mix." The population was described as ethnically diverse, high income professionals interested in fitness clubs, clothing boutiques, and technology. Interests that reminded me of my family included the mini cooper, a car my sister has been dying to get, and Newsweek, a magazine that can always be found next to my father's spot on the couch.

These segmentation tools help answer questions about target audiences in regards to what they like, where they live, and how they can be reached. This week I learned that people do like to categorize themselves. I learned the importance of active listening skills and understanding the mind of the consumer. Classifying people into segments is an important tool in designing effective campaigns and something I will definitely use in my group project on walkable communities!