By Debra Minar Driscoll, Family and Community Development Faculty, Polk County OSU Extension Service

Let’s play a game! Doesn’t sound very serious, does it? But Debra Minar Driscoll, an Oregon State University Extension Service county faculty member created a game that teaches a serious message: diabetes awareness. When Debra moved to the mid-Willamette valley of Oregon in 1998, her top priority was to reach the area’s growing Latino population with educational programming.

Through informal needs assessment strategies, she determined that Latino families not only have a higher genetic risk of contracting diabetes, they also had higher rates of serious complications, including amputations, blindness, and kidney failure. Many who were diagnosed with diabetes, as well as their family members, did not understand the serious implications of neglecting needed management practices, including testing blood sugar levels and maintaining a healthier way of eating.

Many Latino families were unaware of potential diabetes symptoms, and as a result were not seeking testing to see if they had the disease. This resulted in later detection and treatment, also putting them at higher risk for complications.

Debra was introduced to the Lotería game at a nutrition education event sponsored by the Las Comidas Latinas program in Silverton, Oregon. Lotería is a popular Mexican game that is similar to bingo, but uses pictures instead of numbers. Families are very familiar with all of the various pictures used in the game, and even know the rhymes that go with each one. It is a game that is simple enough for all ages to play, and consists of a set of individual picture cards, playing boards, and dry pinto beans for markers. No reading skills are required.

Debra adapted the format of the Lotería game to incorporate 28 key messages with easily identified pictures for each message. Common symptoms of diabetes, the effect the disease can have on the body, management strategies, and prevention techniques are included in the game. After several pilot versions of the game were developed and tested informally, and were accepted by the audience with much enthusiasm, Debra developed an evaluation tool and conducted a formal pilot test, with teachers, dieticians, and extension professionals trying the game with their audiences.

After incorporating suggested changes, she partnered with staff from OSU’s Extension and Experiment Station Communications to develop the game as a packaged CD program that can be printed and used in other states. The CD is totally bilingual in Spanish and English, and includes a complete guide to setting up and using the game, the playing boards and leader cards, a take-home information flier for participants, and an evaluation from template that can be used by those without literacy skills. The game was presented at the 2004 Priester National Extension Health Conference, and has been accepted into the National Network for Health (NNH) and CYFERnet databases.

Tips to Design Successful Educational Programs for Hispanics

Debra deliberately used different strategies to develop her successful Diabetes Awareness educational game than she would if she was trying to reach a traditional Extension audience with Diabetes awareness. This is how she did it:

• She conducted a survey in the community to find out how Hispanic families liked to get information. She learned that Hispanics, primarily from Mexico, liked learning from the radio. This supported her understanding that the Hispanic families living in her community like to learn by listening rather than reading. This was also supported by her awareness that these families come from a strong oral tradition.

• She began her work in the Hispanic community by first establishing working relationships with the agency and organizational professionals who provided direct service to the Hispanic families. Debra recommends that if there is not a network of direct service providers in your communities, then you should start one. They are very helpful.

• Debra then went to where the families were. She did not expect them to come to her. For example, if an agency had an event or a class for their Mexican clientele, Debra went along and added her program to the agencies program.

• The Lotería game was successful because Mexican families were already familiar with the game. They knew how to play it and the whole family could play. This made it especially appealing to a family oriented culture. Reading skills were not required so all ages could play. Thus, the educational tool was a familiar adaptation to the Mexican culture.

• Finally, Debra says that it takes a while to build a successful program with a new audience. Patience and steady persistence is required.

Ask Debra

You can contact Debra to learn more about how the Lotería game has worked for her as well as her other successful outreach efforts in the Hispanic community.

Order (pdf) your copy of Lotería: Diabetes Awareness Game