HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

"Our goal is to continually reach new audiences and promote healthy behaviors," said Professor of Medicine Graham Colditz, director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.

The site offers a personalized risk assessment for 12 different cancers, along with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Users answer a brief series of questions and receive an estimate of their risk in the form of a seven-level bar graph comparing them with average men and women their age. Users can then click on personalized prevention strategies and watch their future risk drop.

Cuidar de su Salud uses the same evidence-based, consensus approach that was used for the original site. Epidemiologists, clinicians, and other faculty experts from the Harvard medical community reviewed the current scientific evidence for each disease, identifying the established and probable risk factors of each. This information was then used to develop calculations that generate a person's risk of disease compared with population averages by age and sex.

The center worked with ARGUS Communications, the only Latino-owned advertising and marketing agency in Boston, to ensure that the site was both culturally and linguistically appropriate. Focus groups and other formative research were used to ensure the accuracy of the Spanish translation and the overall appropriateness of the content for Hispanics/Latinos of diverse countries of origin.

Joaquin Barnoya, a physician from Guatemala who consulted on the site, said he expects that Spanish speakers around the world will find the site valuable. "Cuidar de su Salud is a unique risk assessment tool and its messages about chronic disease prevention are relevant both within and outside of the U.S.," Barnoya said.