APPROPRIATENESS OF HISPANIC PRINT MATERIALS - A CONTENT-ANALYSIS

Hispanic women living in the US have a higher rate of later-stage diag nosis of breast cancer, thereby decreasing their chances of surviving the disease, Research shows print materials are more heavily relied on than any other medium to inform this population about early detection and treatment of the disease, Hispanics, moreover, are more likely to read English at below the fourth-grade level than the general US popu lation and have a lower educational attainment than that of non-Hispan ic whites, This paper discusses the results of a content analysis of 2 6 national print breast cancer educational artifacts distributed to Hi spanic women, The purpose was to assess the linguistic appropriateness and cultural sensitivity of the materials in efforts to establish pre liminary guidelines for the development of future materials, The autho r concluded that though many of the artifacts displayed elements of cu ltural competency, all 26 failed to include components essential to re aching and impacting the designated target audience, Even more signifi cant was a survey of health clinics nationwide that determined the 26 print materials as the most heavily relied upon to provide Hispanic wo men with information on breast cancer.