Evaluation of criteria for developing traffic safety materials for Latinos

This quantitative study assessed the validity of guidelines that identified four key characteristics of culturally appropriate Spanish-language traffic safety materials: language, translation, formative evaluation, and credible source material. From a sample of 190, the authors randomly selected 12 Spanish-language educational materials for analysis by 15 experts. Hypotheses included that the experts would rate materials with more of the key characteristics as more effective (likely to affect behavioral change) and rate materials originally developed in Spanish and those that utilized formative evaluation (e.g., pilot tests, focus groups) as more culturally appropriate. Although results revealed a weak association between the number of key characteristics in a material and the rating of its effectiveness, reviewers rated materials originally created in Spanish and those utilizing formative evaluation as significantly more culturally appropriate. The findings and methodology demonstrated important implications for developers and evaluators of any health-related materials for Spanish speakers and other population groups.