The importance of cultural tailoring of communicators and media outlets in an influenza vaccination awareness campaign: a digital randomized trial.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of ethnic minorities again. Health inequity within ethnic minorities has been explained by factors such as higher prevalence of underlying disease, restricted access to care, and lower vaccination rates. In this study, we investigated the effect of cultural tailoring of communicators and media outlets, respectively, on vaccine willingness in an influenza vaccination campaign in the Netherlands. A total of 1226 participants were recruited from two culturally non-tailored media outlets (Dutch newspaper and Facebook), and one media outlet tailored to a large community in the Netherlands with Indian ancestry. The participants from all three media outlets were randomly exposed to a vaccination awareness video delivered by a physician with an Indian or Dutch background, followed by an online survey. Cultural tailoring compared to cultural non-tailoring of communicators showed no difference in improvement of vaccine willingness (13.9% vs. 20.7% increment, respectively, p = 0.083). However, the media outlet tailored to the community with Indian ancestry, resulted in a higher improvement of vaccine willingness compared to non-tailored media outlets (46.7% vs. 14.7% increment, respectively, p < 0.001, unadjusted OR = 5.096). These results suggest that cultural tailoring of media outlets may be critical to effectively reach out to ethnic minorities to help optimize vaccination rates and improve general health.

A new tool, a better tool? Prevalence and performance of the International Diabetes Federation and the National Cholesterol Education Program criteria for metabolic syndrome in different ethnic groups.

We used a population based study in the Netherlands of 330 Hindustani Surinamese, 586 African Surinamese, and 486 ethnic Dutch (Dutch) to describe the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MS) and the association with differences in cardiovascular disease in and between ethnic groups. Fasting blood samples, blood pressure, and anthropometric measurements were obtained. MS was defined according to the criteria of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the criteria of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). Cardiovascular disease was assessed by the Rose questionnaire and included questions on previous diagnoses of angina pectoris/myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident, intermittent claudication. The prevalence of MS (IDF and NCEP) was highest in Hindustani Surinamese men, followed by Dutch and African Surinamese men: 51.0%, 19.4%, and 31.2% (IDF), respectively. Among women, both the Hindustani and African Surinamese participants had a higher prevalence of MS (IDF and NCEP) than the Dutch. The association between the components, MS and cardiovascular disease differed between ethnic groups, in particular among men; OR for MS (NCEP) = 1.0 (0.4-2.7) among Hindustani Surinamese, OR = 4.9 (1.3-18.3) among African Surinamese, and OR = 2.8 (1.1-7.1) among Dutch. However, the differences in MS could not account for the ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease, regardless of the criteria used. The results suggest that, before the criteria can be used to guide practice, they may need to be changed and refined to take into account the differences between ethnic groups as well as the variations by gender.

[Cardiovascular risk factors for Surinamese in the Netherlands: a literature review]. / Cardiovasculaire risicofactoren bij Surinamers in Nederland: een literatuuroverzicht.

OBJECTIVE: To obtain an overview of the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in Surinamese (Hindustani and Creoles) individuals in the Netherlands and the implications of this for secondary prevention. DESIGN: Literature study. METHOD: A Medline literature search was carried out for the period 1985-2001 with the keywords 'cardiovascular risk factor' or 'cardiovascular risk factors', and 'Surinamese'. In addition to this, so-called grey literature was searched and the reference lists of articles found were also checked. A total of 7 studies were selected. RESULTS: Smoking is less frequent among Surinamese individuals in the Netherlands compared to the indigenous population, especially in women. The prevalence of both hypertension and diabetes is higher among the Surinamese. Data on dyslipidaemia are almost absent; it is only known that hypercholesterolaemia is less prevalent among the Surinamese. Ethnicity is not included in the risk cards used in the secondary treatment of cardiovascular diseases. CONCLUSION: The lack of research with respect to the cardiovascular risk profile of Surinamese (Hindustani and Creoles) in the Netherlands indicates an unfavourable profile compared to the indigenous Dutch population. This difference justifies further research into the differentiation of prevention and treatment according to ethnic origin.