Determining how effective radio public service announcements are at driving call volumes within the

ABSTRACT

Background: In New Mexico from 2013 to 2017, Native Americans had the highest number of poison-related deaths (26.6/100,000 population) when compared to other ethnic groups Hispanics (26.5/100,000), Black/African Americans (24.4/ 100,000), Whites (21.2/100,000), and Asian/Pacific Islanders (4.7/ 100,000). In addition, the poison center has traditionally experienced low call volumes from tribal communities. A survey conducted in 2018 revealed that community health representatives of the Navajo Nation reported that their respective communities preferred printed materials and radio public service announcements (PSAs) as platforms to receive educational messages. Method(s) In 2021, a radio public service announcement (PSA) was developed in English and translated into Dine by a college of pharmacy student and a medical doctor, both fluent in their native tongue. The PSAs provide examples of poisoning scenarios and advises to call the poison hotline at the end. Thirty second versions of both the English and Dine PSAs were run on the Navajo Nation internet radio station, KTNN, for the month of September 2021, and then again for the month of March 2022. Both interventions had an equal amount of radio spots. Result(s) Data were retrieved from Toxicall for zip codes that corresponded to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. COVID calls were excluded from the data. Calls stemming from a poisoning outbreak that occurred on the Navajo Nation during the summer of 2020 were also eliminated to account for atypical patterns in call volume. There was a 48.3% increase in calls when comparing September 2021, intervention month, to September 2020. The March 2022 intervention showed a 54.5% uptick in calls when compared to March 2021. Both the September and March interventions resulted in an increase of 30 calls. To control for March also being poison prevention month in New Mexico, Navajo Nation zip codes were excluded, and then the total calls for the rest of the state were calculated. This resulted in 2147 calls in 2021 and 2073 in 2022. Conclusion(s) The significant increase in call volumes when comparing the intervention months to the preceding years, strongly suggests that radio PSAs increase poison hotline traffic. Both intervention months showing an increase of 30 calls was also striking. In addition, total calls for the state without including the Navajo Nation zip codes dropped from March 2021 to March 2022, further eliminating poison prevention month as a cofactor in the increase in calls during the March intervention. Due to the consistent decrease in calls to poison centers across the nation, it is imperative to continue investigating how certain dynamics influence call volume, such as increasing internet consumption and, perhaps, the COVID 19 pandemic. It is equally necessary to research other at-risk communities to refine the components of effective communication and to define relevant platforms for delivering those educational messages.