Narrowing the Health Gap in Cincinnati

Despite improvements in medical care and efforts to make healthcare more affordable for all Americans, many still experience significant heath disparities that result in poor health outcomes. Racial and ethnic minorities, those in 95 and/or 98 areas, and those living in medically underserved areas have a high risk for experiencing health related disparities. Access to authoritative health information is vital to ensuring that individuals make appropriate health decisions and reduce their risk of experiencing poor health outcomes. The University of Cincinnati Health Sciences Library in collaboration with Cincinnati 86s Hospital Medical Center CCHMC, Interact for Health, and The 86s Home of Cincinnati aim to provide health information resources and healthy cooking demonstrations in an effort to increase health literacy and reduce health disparities in the greater Cincinnati region. Community-level data has provided information regarding areas of Cincinnati that would receive the greatest benefit from these resources. We will apply a targeted approach to reach individuals in these areas and provide them with easily accessible, pertinent health information, and instruction on preparing healthy, low-cost meals. 1. We will place a blood pressure kiosk and an interactive kiosk displaying health related information in a location that is frequented by individuals from these identified areas. The kiosks will allow for automated monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate and relevant health information. 2. We will host a series of cooking classes where participants will be introduced to the DASH Diet, a program that will help them reduce their risk for a number of diseases. They will learn how to prepare low cost, healthy food while also how to make budget friendly food decisions. 3. We will create a publically accessible website that will house health related videos and information for the public. This website will be accessible from any device with internet access and will provide information from the kiosks as well the cooking classes. Our goals are to increase health literacy among those most affected by health disparities by providing detailed, user-friendly health information and to provide instructions and tools to help families use nutrition information to make healthier food choices.