Leveraging Social Media to Augment Education on Melanoma in Hispanics

Hispanics are the largest US ethnic group, one of the fastest growing US demographics, and are projected to become one-third of the US population by 2060. Although melanomas occur most commonly in Caucasians, this is followed by Hispanics. Unfortunately compared to Caucasians, Hispanics are more likely to be diagnosed with more advance melanomas and have worse survival. Early recognition and treatment will be vital in the fight to improve Hispanic survival of melanoma and mass education will be key. Our prior melanoma work in minorities population found that Hispanic individuals have the largest knowledge gap in melanoma, are not aware of self-skin examinations, and are most receptive to video-based melanoma education. The current research project will develop and implement an online educational platform for large-scale education in the Hispanic community. The primary goal of this project is to develop an online education platform using social media to educate the Hispanic community. We will use our existing community outreach infrastructure to reach our target audience. This platform and all content will be available in English and Spanish and will include short videos, educational modules, and an online educational game. Participants will assessed for retained knowledge.