WED-002 - Play Inclusive Games, Win Trust as Prizes: Lotería as a Gamified Approach to Community Outreach

Brief Abstract Summary: Discover how the Health Lotería project bridges the gap between epidemiological data and health promotion practice for the Hispanic/Latino community in Johnson County, KS. Learn to utilize cultural icons to rebuild institutional trust while advancing health equity through a gamified, bilingual toolkit. Examine the integration of communications and technology by exploring the development of a QR-coded digital resource index that ensures access to critical services. Gain practical insights into implementing National CLAS Standards to address language barriers and navigate social inequities. Observe how this intervention empowers Spanish-preferring families—who represent 14.5% of our local population yet face significant service gaps—to access essential care like immunizations and maternal health. Leave with a data-driven strategy to transform traditional community engagement into a future-proof, sustainable public health tool.

Detailed abstract description: This presentation demonstrates the implementation of Health Lotería—a two-part, bilingual intervention consisting of a physical game set and a corresponding digital resource index. This toolkit reduces systemic barriers and improves access to healthcare for a minority population by redesigning the traditional, image-based game of Lotería with custom health resource cards that represent essential county services. I detail how I applied a systems-thinking causal loop framework to model the reinforcing loops between institutional trust, service awareness, and resource utilization.
Using descriptive epidemiology to characterize health department utilization patterns, I illustrate that while the Hispanic/Latino population represents just 9.5% of our community, they account for 33% of our department's client population, and that 70% of Spanish-preferring residents face substantial communication hurdles. These data-driven insights, derived from our clinical data, justified a targeted health promotion strategy that prioritizes immigration and minority health as a core theme.
I review how I formed critical partnerships and coalitions to ensure cultural competence and authentic representation. This collaboration included direct feedback from Promotoras de Salud (community health workers) and transformed traditional resource development into a bidirectional dialogue, creating a sustainable product to be shared across generations and cultures. We will display the 54 game cards of community-vetted services that anchor the intervention in real-world needs and address the nuances of race/ethnicity and historical marginalization.
We will explore how gamification serves as an advanced health communication tool, effectively bridging the physical and digital divide. The game utilizes its Lotería cards, which contain a unique QR code, to route users to a county health resource index website featuring plain-language, bilingual descriptions and direct resource navigation links. The use of this technology allows for real-time digital updates across community resources, ensuring our health advocacy intervention remains current without the need for costly reprinting.
I will also break down the community-based participatory research approach I took to implement and evaluate the toolkit. I demonstrate our mixed-methods evaluation results from our community engagement events used to promote and research the intervention. Learn how an IRB-approved implied-consent process with (no personal identifiers) protected the privacy of vulnerable groups—a decision that directly contributed to an 87% reported increase in trust in the health department. I will share qualitative data and Likert scale results from the survey instrument, demonstrating a 96% likelihood of intervention utilization. Attendees will leave with a framework for designing a technology-based intervention that respects cultural values while moving the needle on health equity and social inequity.