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Technology valuable in delivering health messages that are personal, pertinent
March 23, 2010
Deborah Billings
Even in the most remote communities in Africa, Latin America and Asia, Internet cafes are springing up. The inexpensive computers these places provide are keeping people in touch with the rest of the world, including information that will affect their health and well-being.
Dr. Deborah Billings has spent her career working with communities and with Ministries of Health, the United Nations and non-governmental organizations throughout Latin America and Africa, to improve reproductive health and access for women and families. Her work has given her insight into the changing role that technology is playing in improving the health of children and adults locally and globally.
“You can find Internet cafes in some of the most remote places, places that are not much more than a hole in the wall,” she said. “Yet, with the help of a couple of inexpensive computers, these locations are attracting young people and others who now are linked to what is happening in the rest of the world.
“Globally, we are more wired than ever. Cell phones and text messaging give us the opportunity to deliver public health campaigns in way that is widespread and fairly inexpensive.”
Billings, who has a joint appointment in the Arnold School’s Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, and in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, brings her first-hand knowledge to the classroom, teaching HPEB 621, Maternal and Child Health, using a reproductive health and rights focus. She also is working with health agencies in eight Latin American countries to offer comprehensive health services to victims of sexual violence.
Hired under the university’s Faculty Excellence Initiative (FEI), which seeks innovative efforts to combine faculty scholarship and research across disciplines, Billings also serves as chair of the South Carolina Hispanic/Latino Health Coalition. She has been a longtime researcher and coordinator for the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Ipas, a nonprofit organization that works globally to increase women’s ability to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights. Billings earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan.
Billings is exploring Latino health disparities and has been working with community-based organizations in the Midlands on projects that can address the reproductive health needs of South Carolina’s growing Latino populations.
The goal: to improve preventive and reproductive health services for Latinas in South Carolina, and as a result, improve health outcomes, which will have a positive effect on society as a whole.
“As public health professionals, we know prevention works,” said Billings. “It’s our role as educators to advocate for services to improve the health and well-being of our community.”
Preventing teen pregnancies is a critical first step in improving reproductive health. Teen pregnancies in South Carolina are on the rise, she says, and its impact has a human and financial cost.
The statistics offer a sobering picture: South Carolina ranks 27 out of 47 states for African- American teen birth rates, and 44 out of 47 for Latina birth rates. Rates of unintended pregnancies can be as high as 200 per 1,000 women aged 18 and 19 in some rural counties in the state, where little or no reproductive health services exist.
Research also has shown that children born to teen mothers are more likely to be poor, abused or neglected, drop out of school, and be at higher risk for unhealthy behaviors, such as HIV/AIDS. Youth, ages 15 to 24, account for almost half of new sexually transmitted
infection cases in South Carolina.
Without access to family planning, counseling, and clinical services, young women are more likely to repeat the cycle. Births to young mothers cost South Carolina taxpayers $156 million each year.
With her knowledge of e-advocacy, Billings has been part of a 24-hour, virtual health e-campaign – The Virtual March in Support of Responsible Reproductive Health Policies – on March 23. The Virtual March has worked to create public awareness and action to support responsible reproductive health policies in South Carolina.
Going online gives the community an easy way to communicate with leaders about policies that promote prevention first.
“The best way to prevent unintended pregnancy and the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among young people is through age appropriate, medically accurate reproductive health education,” said Billings.
TellThem, an e-advocacy network managed by the New Morning Foundation, launched the initiative to raise visibility about the importance of age-appropriate, medically accurate reproductive health policies in early 2010. The event comes at a critical time for the Palmetto State. A new report released by the S.C. Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) showed an increase in teen pregnancy rates for the fourth year in a row. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers South Carolina one of the Top 10 HIV “hot spots” in the nation.
“Our long-term goal is to lower the number of teen pregnancies and limit the spread of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections,” said Billings.
E-advocacy efforts are vital in reaching rural and remote communities where healthcare services may be limited. Text messaging also offers the potential to personalize messages that target a person’s specific health problems.
“Imagine a doctor’s office being able to sending a text message about advances in reproductive health or to remind patients to take their medications,” she said. “Technology enables us to link advocacy, policy changes, public health campaigns, and prevention. This multi-faceted approach can make a difference in people’s lives.”
