Radio campaign to promote quality use of medicines among Italian, Mandarin and Cantonese speaking seniors in Australia

Abstract

Issue addressed: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a radio campaign in promoting the quality use of medicine (QUM) among Italian, Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking seniors. Methods: One hundred and eight six in-language radio advertisement spots and nine interviews were broadcasted during eight ethnic language radios programs in September and October 2008. Immediately before and after the campaign, telephone interviews were conducted with 1,200 (600 before and 600 after) randomly selected Italian, Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking seniors aged 50 or older. Results: Awareness of QUM was increased by 6%. The mean number of correct answers regarding QUM increased from 5.2 before the campaign to 5.7 after the campaign (p<0.001). The proportion of people who had correct answers to six or more questions (out of nine) increased by 12% (p<0.001). The increase was largest among the Cantonese-speaking seniors (27%), followed by the Mandarin (8%) and Italian seniors (4%, p<0.001). Conclusions: The radio campaign was effective in increasing awareness and knowledge of QUM among seniors. However, the effectiveness of the campaign varied between language groups. Key words: quality use of medicines, health promotion, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD).