Delivering The Heart Truth® to Women Through Community Education

The Heart Truth® is a national education campaign sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to raise awareness among women that heart disease is their leading cause of death and to motivate them to take action for heart health. Launched in 2002 as a brand-driven social marketing effort, the campaign created the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness. With the brand as a driving force, the campaign has made substantial progress toward its goal through a three-part implementation strategy: partnership development, media relations and use of social media, and education at the community level. This article reports on the development and results of the campaign's community programs that have delivered its messages and materials locally, especially to African-American and Hispanic women, two groups disproportionately affected by heart disease. Most of the local efforts were a mix of communitywide awareness building and more intensive small-group education. The article reports on lessons learned, including pros and cons of working through national organizations with local infrastructures, the advantage of using existing turnkey materials, and the implications of the choice to use scarce resources for educational programming rather than extensive formal evaluation.