Empagliflozin and dulaglutide: community awareness project promotes improved access to newly funded medications for Pacific patients with type 2 diabetes.

Aim: The aims of our awareness campaign were to increase the number of inquiries by patients to doctors for two new diabetes drugs funded by Pharmac on 1 February 2021 and 1 September 2021 respectively, to increase the number of applications for special authority, and to trial a "grass roots" community dissemination of information that appeals to explicit individual benefit from the new medicines. The campaign used an approach tailored primarily to the Pasifika community.

Methods: The campaign ran from April 2021 to July 2021 and targeted Counties Manukau communities using a talanoa approach by primarily by sharing key messages informally through social networks face-to-face by word-of-mouth. The key messages about the new medicines were shared orally with local organisations, family, friends, influential community leaders and colleagues such as justices of peace, kapa haka leaders, committee representatives from local schools, sports, cultural and hobby clubs. A printed pamphlet translated in Māori, Samoan, Tongan and English with the key messages was also distributed widely. The campaign notified 102 primary care practices, used Pacific equity teams to disseminate the information, promoted the message on Māori and Pasifika radio stations, and engaged a public relations company who contacted the South Auckland Community Trust, councillors, community boards and local churches. This approach was intended to spread the message through the community to reach people with type 2 diabetes and/or their families to prompt them to contact their doctor and see if they are eligible. To gauge how effective the campaign was, we gathered data from Pharmac that quantified new prescriptions for the new medicines by location and ethnicity.

Results: An estimated 45,000 people were exposed to our campaign materials or were told about the new medicines by people they knew. These estimations were conservatively based on the known membership, listenership, and reach of the various delivery arms by which this campaign was delivered. These data show Pacific patients, the focus of about 64% of our project work, were 40% more likely to apply and receive a prescription for empagliflozin in Counties Manukau than anywhere else in the country.

Conclusion: Direct-to-consumer marketing is an effective way of increasing health awareness and uptake of newly funded diabetes medicine amongst Pacific patients with type 2 diabetes.