Salud Para Su Corazón (Health for Your Heart)

Salud Para Su Corazón (Health for Your Heart) is a culturally appropriate, community-based intervention model to educate Latinos about cardiovascular disease risk reduction. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for Latinos living in the United States. The intervention is led by an agency-community partnership led by the Community Alliance for Heart Health. The program uses multimedia bilingual community interventions including televised public service announcements with a telenovela format, radio programs, brochures, recipe booklets, group discussions (charlas), a training manual for lay health educators (promotores), and motivational videos. The campaign conveys simple messages about heart disease risk factors and promotes heart-healthy behaviors. Lay health educators lead hour long heart-healthy educational sessions, and a 1-800 number is included in program materials for community members seeking more information.

The goal of Salud Para Su Corazón is to raise awareness and knowledge of heart disease risk factors and prevention among Latino populations.

This program was evaluated using pre- and post-campaign surveys conducted at churches and grocery stores in the intervention community. Community members had significant increases in awareness of heart disease risk factors (from 45% to 61%) following the media campaign. Individuals also increased their knowledge of ways to prevent heart disease (from 51% to 70%). No significant change was found in performing heart disease health behaviors.