In association with Simon Fraser University & Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Simon Fraser University Great Northern Way Campus 555 Great Northern Way Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 1E2 tel: 1.604.268.7306 fax: 1.604.268.7309 email: act4hlth@sfu.ca website: www.sfu.ca/act4hlth Assessing the effectiveness of different methods of communication on Farsi-speaking immigrants’ perception toward and intention to use a government-sponsored health information program in the Greater Vancouver Area (Theme I) Investigators: Ellen Balka, Irving Rootman, Iraj Poureslami Background Despite considerable investments in BC HealthGuide program by the government of BC, little is known about who uses them, when and for what purposes the services are likely used, and the perceptions of users towards the services. Although this program is developed to serve the public as a whole in BC, people with different cultural and ethnicity backgrounds may use and benefit from the services in different ways. Understanding more about different communities: whether they use the BC HealthGuide services and, if used, the level of satisfaction is important for health promotion specialists who want to choose the best medium for disseminating information and apply communication interventions. To answer these questions and evaluate the overall effectiveness of the BC HealthGuide services, the Michael Smith Foundation funded an Evaluation Program in 2003 with an attempt to determine how different cultural communities use these services and the perspectives on benefits and barriers of the provided services. In a study as a part of this program, a series of documentary and drama videos have been produced and aired in summer and fall 2004. Project Description The evaluation study aims to assess the effects of broadcasting the aforementioned videos on the awareness about and the patterns of the BC HealthGuide Services usage among the Farsispeaking community in the Greater Vancouver Area (GVA). The major goals of the study are twofold: (1) to compare two methods of communications (direct vs. indirect messages) on the attitudes and perceptions of the viewers regarding the credibility of messengers and the relevancy of the information provided in the videos; and (2) to compare and contrast the effectiveness of providing audio-visual health information (i.e., the produced videos) via local TVs with the same materials when are presented in the group sessions by using VCR (i.e. VHS video tapes) on participants attitudes and perceptions towards the BC HealthGuide services. Methods A quasi-experimental design is used to conduct telephone surveys of a selected sample and the intervention (showing videos in the group sessions) in an aim to test the hypotheses of the study. Research Partner Benefits This study provides initial information for the BC Ministry of Health that could be used as a foundation for larger programs and research activities by other researchers, particularly in the fields of communication and health education/promotion. It also aids the Ministry with the creation of a protocol for delivering health-related information in other languages than English or French for ethno-cultural communities in the GVA.