COPD Awareness Month 2021
Overview
Organization: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Start Date: 11/2021
End Date: 11/2021
Primary Goal: Goal 1: Empower people with COPD, their families, and caregivers to recognize and reduce the burden of COPD.
Secondary Goal(s):
- Goal 2: Improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of COPD by improving the quality of care delivered across the health care continuum.
- Goal 3: Collect, analyze, report, and disseminate COPD-related public health data that drive change and track progress.
Objective(s):
- Increase public awareness of the risk factors and symptoms of COPD so that earlier diagnosis of symptomatic individuals becomes the norm
- Increase the effectiveness and variety of outreach communication campaigns and activities that utilize evidence-based approaches to raise awareness of COPD, particularly among those at high risk, and help people diagnosed with COPD manage the disease
- Develop, disseminate, and maintain unified, multidisciplinary, and patient-centric national guidelines for COPD that are accessible and easy to follow
- Enhance and optimize our capacity to collect and aggregate data from multiple sources, including at local, regional, and national levels, and turn them into actionable information.
- Facilitate dissemination of data and analyses. Report the prevalence of COPD in accordance with the requirements of public health and health care organizations
Collaboration: NHLBI worked with key stakeholders, partners of the Breathe Better Network, and awardees from the NHLBI Community Subcontract Program to promote and share materials developed for COPD Awareness Month. They include Breathe California, COPD Foundation (COPDF), Respiratory Health Association, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention
Activity Type: Patient education, Campaign, Material or product, Provider education
Activity Description
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) annually supports and produces materials in support of the National COPD Awareness Month observed in November. Each year, NHLBI’s Learn More Breathe Better® program offers Breathe Better Network partners and other interested organizations tools and resources to help educate fellow healthcare providers, patients, friends, and families about the signs and symptoms of COPD and the need for proper diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing disease management for people living with the disease.The 2021 awareness month observance focused on COPD exposure in the workplace. All elements of the awareness month are branded with the social media hashtags #BreatheBetter and #COPDMonth.
A webinar featured Breathe Better Network partners National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the American Thoracic Society, and the Dorney-Koppel Foundation.
Resources included social media, World COPD Day news brief, digital/social toolkit (e.g., PSAs, Lung Health on the Job infographic, partner videos), development of new materials (e.g., matte article, COPD state prevalence cards, updated webpage), and promotion of Learn More Breathe Better print materials to support community events and programs around COPD.
Audience
General Audience: Patients, Caregivers or family members, At-risk populations, General Public, Health professionals, Employers, Researchers, Policymakers/advocates
Focused Audience: Hispanic/Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, African American/Black, Caucasian/White, Men, Women
Program Reach: National
Type of Area: Urban, Suburban, Rural
Setting: Community, Online
Cost and Funding Sources
It was funded through NHLBI.Impact Analysis
In progressAdvice or Lessons Learned
Hosting a webinar a few weeks before the start of the health observance was an effective way to showcase Breathe Better Network partners and preview the available resources. Partners with programs to be potentially featured on a future webinar should email HealthEdu@nhlbi.nih.gov.Contact Information
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Team Lead, Health Education and Research Dissemination
Bethesda
Maryland