Expanding self‐help group participation in culturally diverse urban areas: Media approaches to leveraging referent power

Abstract

AbstractAccumulating research attests to the benefits of self‐help groups for people who have various chronic health problems. Expansion of self‐help group participation may enable a broader portion of society to experience these health benefits. The Media and Education for Self‐Help (MESH) Project was an effort to increase interest in health‐related self‐help groups among middle‐ and lower‐income people in two California urban areas with minority–majority populations. A diverse coalition of self‐help group leaders designed English‐ and Spanish‐language radio public service announcements and posters that were disseminated in Oakland and Los Angeles. The outcome measures in each urban area were self‐help‐group‐related telephone inquiries to local information and referral agencies (English and Spanish language) and the number of individuals attending self‐help groups at agencies hosting many groups. Telephone caller data were also gathered in a nonintervention control urban area (Sacramento). Los Angeles experienced an overall increase in telephone calls about self‐help groups during the MESH intervention, whereas the control urban area had no change in the number of telephone calls over the same period. The initial sharp increase in self‐help‐group‐related telephone calls was not sustained in Oakland, however. The number of Spanish‐language calls about self‐help groups increased 821% in Los Angeles and 149% in Oakland in the period from the 6 months that preceded the project through the first 6 months of the MESH Project. In the MESH Project urban areas, the number of visits to self‐help groups was significantly higher in intervention months than in the same calendar months of the preceding year, particularly in Oakland, where the increase exceeded 300 visits to self‐help groups per month. These intriguing findings are discussed in terms of their health policy and program evaluation implications. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 32: 413–424, 2004.