Project highlight: Hypertension in the African American community material
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
A couple of years ago during World Alzheimer's Month, we shared a few materials focused on Alzheimer’s disease in the African American community. The materials were a part of a larger series for which we talked with community and faith-based leaders across the country about health and research in the African American community. We learned that community members wanted education materials that focused on health conditions that mattered to them. Alzheimer’s disease was one of those conditions. Another was hypertension, or high blood pressure.
May is High Blood Pressure Education Month
During High Blood Pressure Education Month, the goal is simple: help people understand the condition and take steps to protect and improve their health. We thought it was a great opportunity to share the high blood pressure education material we created for the series.
Both the design template and content structure were tested with members of the African American community, as was the fully designed material. It answers questions such as:
What is hypertension, also known as high blood pressure?
Why does high blood pressure affect African Americans more than other groups?
How can people lower their chances of getting high blood pressure?
What do clinical trials for high blood pressure study?
How can I find clinical trials on high blood pressure?
The role of co-creation and audience testing
One thing we love about this project is that it used a co-creation approach, meaning community voices helped shape the materials throughout the development process, rather than only having the community review it at the end. The condition of focus – high blood pressure – was requested by the community, the questions we answered in the material were questions community members had about the condition, and the design was refined with community input.
Materials were also audience-tested to better understand how people interpreted the information, what felt clear or confusing, and whether the messages felt relevant and trustworthy. This process helped support materials that were not only evidence-based, but also culturally responsive, understandable, and grounded in the experiences of the intended audience.
Take a look at what we created with the community:
View and download the full material:
About our partnership with Our Healthy Community
To help raise community voices, HLM in collaboration with Our Healthy Community (OHC), formed the Research Literacy and Justice Project (RLJP). OHC is an African American-led community engagement organization that, like us, values co-creation and health equity! Through RLJP, we learn from community, co-create useful materials, and collaborate on educational content that aims to shape better health outcomes.
Conversations like the ones that sparked these materials are happening online as a part of OHCEngage - a platform developed by OHC for communities to collaborate, share resources, and discuss health equity to improve community health. To learn more about OHCEngage and join the conversations, visit: ourhealthycommunity.com/OHCEngage.