Hopi Language Information Resources to Reduce Health Disparities

About This Grant

Project Summary The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation of approximately 20,000 enrolled members, of whom approximately 15,000 reside in the Hopi tribal land in northeastern Arizona. In response to the high prevalence of cancers in the Hopi population, the Hopi Tribe established the Hopi Cancer Support Services programs with a focus on increasing screening uptake and providing supportive services for Hopi people navigating cancer care. Despite robust community engagement, there is persistently low uptake of screening services and increased rates of cancer mortality among tribal members, representing an ongoing health disparity for the Hopi Tribe. In the evaluation of an evidence-based practice implementation of digital library resources for Hopi Cancer Support Services, patient navigators reported information uptake barriers due to the lack of cancer terminology in the Hopi language (Hopilavayi). Early efforts to create a Hopilavayi medical lexicon yielded basic terminology that is helpful for communication. However, the extant cultural focus on health that avoids topics of anatomical sites for cancers, morbidity, and mortality remains a communication barrier for Tribal health workers. Infrastructure limitations including limited availability of printed or digital Hopilavayi dictionaries and limited internet connectivity on the Hopi Tribal land pose a challenge to health literacy and communication, contributing to suboptimal uptake of screening services and unnecessarily high cancer morbidity and mortality. Additionally, Hopi cultural preservation priorities limit the use of internet resources to disseminate resources in Hopilavayi including dictionaries and health information. We have previously used an offline digital health library (SolarSPELL) to curate and disseminate culturally relevant cancer education materials to Hopi Tribal members, meeting both the infrastructure conditions and cultural preservation priorities for the Hopi Tribe. Building on that pilot success, we propose to leverage the offline digital library platform to disseminate dictionary and health content to 1) Develop a Hopilavayi lexicon for cancer terminology, and 2) Develop linguistically and culturally congruent cancer education resources for the Hopi Tribe. The proposed project uses a culturally-modified Delphi method approach to create novel Hopi language terms to convey key cancer-related concepts. Evidence-based cancer education materials will be developed and tested with community members to evaluate understanding and cultural congruence for refinement and future dissemination throughout the Hopi community. In addition to creating culturally-relevant cancer education materials appropriate for future dissemination and evaluation using offline digital libraries, the successful completion of the proposed work can serve as a model for creating culturally- and linguistically-relevant health promotion materials for a variety of communities that experience health disparities.