Ananya Tina Banerjee, RKin PhD Saswata Deb, MD Soumo Mukherjee, PhD Sanjana Sen, MSc

1. Ethnic Minority Health InitiativeA Health Promotion Project to Raise Awareness About Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in High Risk Ethnic Minority Groups Ananya Tina Banerjee, RKin PhD Saswata Deb, MD Soumo Mukherjee, PhD Sanjana Sen, MSc Prateek Lala, MD

2. Health Outcomes • Ethnic minority groups have a significantly higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors compared with the general population in Canada • South Asian • Afro-Caribbean • Ethnic groups also have a lower prevalence of positive health behaviours related to diet and physical activity (Sheth et al, 1999; Anand et al, 2001; Chiu et al, 2006) (Bryan et al, 2006; Kukuswadia et al, 2014)

3. Prevention and Health Promotion • Prevention of CVD is seen as an important issue for high risk ethnic populations (Resnicow, Braithwaite, Dilorio & Glanz, 2002) • Good evidence that health promotion programs can be effective in reducing morbidity from CVD among ethnic groups especially if they are: • Culturally sensitive • Relevant for target audiences • Accessible • Delivered in a manner that is comprehensible and informative

4. Ethnic Minority Health Initiative • A pilot volunteer-based project • A group composed of young ethnic healthcare professionals that organizes seminars in high-risk ethnic communities to deliver health promotion and education activities about cardiovascular risk reduction

5. Our Team • An interdisciplinary healthcare team • Family Physician • Cardiac Surgery Resident • Pediatrician • Kinesiologist • Dietician • Environmental Scientist

6. Why Health Care Providers? • Members of ethnic groups view health-care providers as agents of health promotion • Patients are more likely to initiate and adhere to health behaviour messages that come from health-care providers • Health information provided by health providers are perceived to be more credible (Greenhalgh, Helman & Chowdhury, 1998; Ali, Atkin & Neal, 2006)

7. Activities • Interactive health promotion seminars were developed and implemented in ethnic communities. • Topics of a two- to three-hour seminar include: • Signs and symptoms of CVD • Intro to risk factors of CVD • Childhood obesity • Diet and nutrition • Physical activity

8. Deliverables • Between February 2012 and October 2013, EMHI organized 3 seminars: • 2 composed of South Asian communities and 1 Afro-Caribbean • targeted approximately 300 individuals • The seminars: • raised awareness of primary prevention of CVD • offered culturally appropriate information by ethnic healthcare professionals

9. Evaluation: Readiness for Healthy Lifestyle Participation

10. Evaluation: Seminar Presentations

11. Evaluation: Correlation to Lifestyle The anomalous scores do not correlate with any lifestyle parameters suggesting attendees were not biased (preaching to the choir).

12. Qualitative Comments • I am really happy for your comments and presentation. You people are our asset. • I like this seminar. We would like to see more of this. • I shall try to teach the information to as many possible. • Should do it more often to educate and community people. • It was very informative and educational. • You should do this health event once a year.

13. Implications and Future Steps • Health promotion activities targeting ethnic communities can be implemented nationally on a larger scale • Formal pre- and post-quantitative and qualitative evaluations may help to provide rigorous data on efficacy and effectiveness of these initiatives

14. THANK YOU Ananya.Banerjee@wchospital.ca