Application of the Diffusion of Innovations Theory

You are a newly hired employee at the health department.  Your second day at work, you are put in charge of a diabetes awareness program with pamphlets and lectures in a wide variety of target audiences. After speaking with other supervisors, you have been asked to develop a pyramid type program where you train a group of individuals who will then go out and train others.  Clearly your knowledge of diffusion theory adoption categories is important.

· What aspects of the innovation would be important to highlight in educating the public?

· Outline how you would use adopter categories

o Who would you expect to include in each of the groups?

o How would you target these groups?

· How would you evaluate your effort?

o What specific factors would you examine? 

o What are your goals for the program? Why?