Introduction to T2D2 Knowledge Dissemination Conference

This knowledge dissemination conference centers on the role of targeting and tailoring in designing health interventions to help people seek care for depression.  The presentations selected for this conference relate to formative research studies conducted in a National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored R01 titled, “Targeted and Tailored Messages to Enhance Depression Care” (R. Kravitz, PI).  These studies have been used to inform the development of a targeting intervention (series of public service announcements) and a tailoring intervention (interactive multi-media computer program).  Both interventions are meant to support patients with useful, personally relevant information and facilitate discussions with the primary care physicians about understanding and selecting appropriate treatment options for depression.

Targeted and tailored interventions approach their audiences in different ways.  Targeted interventions involve messages that are intended to reach population subgroups based on a specific set of shared characteristics.  These may relate to age, gender, past health care experience, and sociodemographic factors. Tailored interventions, on the other hand, involve messages that are intended to reach an individual based on specific characteristics of the individual as measured in a formal assessment process.(1) Both types of interventions have a place in health education, and in summer 2010 we will undertake a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the targeted and tailored interventions we’ve created for depression care.

With this conference, we hope to show our participants: 1) how targeting and tailoring are commonly used, 2) how our interventions were designed using the experiences of real patients, and 3) how to anticipate possible barriers to implementation and dissemination in outpatient clinic settings. By sharing our experiences with a wide range of policy makers, patient advocates, mental health practitioners, clinic administrators, consumers, and physicians, we hope to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Introduce the use of educational tools to hard-to-reach or underserved populations (Hispanics, African-Americans, men) who may experience the barriers of stigma or limited health care access when seeking help for depression;
2. Present the concepts of tailoring and targeting to develop tools that encourage people to seek care;
3. Describe different approaches to audience analysis using research methods such as focus groups, survey research using computer-assisted telephone interviewing as well as Internet-based surveys, and conjoint analysis; and
4. Showcase prototypes of the PSAs and interactive multi-media computer program that we will be using in a randomized controlled trial.

The desired outcome of this knowledge dissemination conference will be to create a lively and interactive learning experience for people who are interested in innovative multi-media health education approaches.  We also hope to create a sustainable network of mental health knowledge experts who can help us disseminate our targeting and tailoring tools into practice following the completion of our effectiveness trial in 2011.  We hope you will join us on April 8!

This conference is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency as part of its Knowledge Dissemination Conference Grant Program in Mental Health Services (SM058918).

The educational interventions presented at this conference were developed with grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (1R01MH079387).

1 Kreuter MW, Wray RJ.  Tailored and targed health communication:  strategies for enhancing information relevance.  Am J Health Behav 2003; 27(Suppl 3):S227-232.