On June 1, ODPHP launched Take Good Care, a consumer-facing campaign designed to encourage the use of MyHealthfinder to promote clinical preventive services. 9 in 10 people in the United States aren’t getting all recommended preventive services, a problem the COVID-19 pandemic has made worse.
To pick the right audience for Take Good Care, ODPHP did several rounds of research. We studied population health data related to preventive care (like data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics) and reviewed the literature on preventive care use during COVID-19 specifically. We also learned about other campaigns related to preventive care.
After analyzing these findings, ODPHP decided to focus on reaching Black and Hispanic women between the ages of 45 and 54 years as the campaign’s priority audience. Here’s why:
- Black and Hispanic communities have a higher risk of certain health problems that preventive services can impact — like cancer and type 2 diabetes1,2
- Women are often primary caregivers and play a role in making health care decisions for their families, as well as for themselves3
- Some preventive services that were less frequently used during the pandemic are ones that screen for health problems — like cancer — that start to increase among adults in the 45-to-54 age range4
- Women ages 45 to 54 years are likely to use social media and look for health information online — and therefore could benefit from using an online tool like MyHealthfinder5,6
Once ODPHP established the priority audience for the campaign, it was time to choose a campaign name. We started by conducting in-depth interviews with Black and Hispanic women to hear their thoughts about preventive care and find out what type of messaging resonated with them. This helped us better understand their beliefs, motivators, and barriers related to health care and other aspects of their lives. For example:
- Most interview participants were in a caregiving role in one way or another — caring for younger or older family members, helping friends, or volunteering in their communities.
- Many noted that they tend to put others first and their own health care last. They liked messages that reminded them not to let their own care fall to the bottom of the list.
- Family was a key motivator for interview participants to take care of their health.
Based on these findings, ODPHP decided on the campaign name Take Good Care as a call to action, encouraging women to make their own health a priority, and learn about recommended preventive services.
Please join us in our effort to promote the Take Good Care campaign! The partner promotional toolkit has resources you can use to spread the word to your networks — including sample newsletter copy, ready-to-share social media posts and graphics, and more. You can also share the campaign landing page with your partners who engage consumer audiences in their local community.
