The Kidney Kid expands its reach to
millennial parents through social media campaign
Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s leading provider of products
and services for individuals with renal diseases, has today
announced the social media expansion of its highly successful
global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, The Kidney
Kid. This colorful superhero character, who is on a mission to help
children and their carers learn more about their ‘super organ’
kidneys and how to keep them healthy, will further its reach to
millennial parents through social media channels. The initiative’s
latest development comes on World Kidney Day 2022, which is urging
the community, healthcare workers, and public health policymakers
to Bridge the knowledge gap to better kidney care – which aligns
precisely with The Kidney Kid’s mission.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220310005537/en/
Fresenius Medical Care’s superhero, The
Kidney Kid, contributes to bridging the knowledge gap to better
kidney health by helping children learn more about their ‘super
organ’ kidneys and how to keep them healthy. (Photo: Business
Wire)
Since its inception in 2014, The Kidney Kid ‘edutainment’
(education + entertainment) program has engaged directly with tens
of thousands of children through face-to-face events. Following The
Kidney Kid’s digital and international growth in 2020, the
superhero has connected with even more children across four
continents. Now, to coincide with World Kidney Day 2022, The Kidney
Kid will become social, via Facebook and Instagram. The aim is to
reach families with preventative kidney health messages that
resonate across age groups, cultures and literacy levels.
Fresenius Medical Care’s worldwide community is creating further
opportunities to foster the exchange of kidney health knowledge
between individuals, communities and healthcare professionals.
These will include the launch of The Kidney Kid’s partnership with
the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, where the superhero will
share its health messages through this vast network. Other events
include a virtual media conference organized by local renal
societies in Indonesia and awareness events at schools and
children’s hospitals in China. A new Kidney Kid animation series is
also being developed.
“The need to strengthen The Kidney Kid’s reach has become even
more critical”, said Harry de Wit, CEO of Fresenius Medical Care
Asia Pacific and President Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
“The World Kidney Day Organization has highlighted that there is a
persistent knowledge gap that is stifling the fight against kidney
disease and increasing its mortality.1 The 2022 World Kidney Day
special report goes as far as saying that most people are not aware
of what the kidneys are for – or even where their kidneys
are”.2
Amongst the many barriers to understanding kidney health and
preventing kidney disease is low health literacy, which impacts the
ability of people to find, understand, and use information and
services to make health-related decisions for themselves and
others.2 Low health literacy is alarmingly common across both
developing and developed economies. A review across Southeast Asia
found that almost 70 per cent of patients in healthcare settings
had low health literacy.3 In the USA, the proportion of adults with
basic or below basic health literacy ranges from 28 per cent of
white adults to 65 per cent of Hispanic adults.4 While across
Europe, nearly half of all adults in eight countries tested had
inadequate or problematic health literacy skills.5
Policymakers, as well as healthcare professionals and
organizations, are increasingly looking for new ways to bridge the
gap between health literacy and people’s understanding of kidney
disease. Indeed, it was recognition of this gap that led to
Fresenius Medical Care creating The Kidney Kid from as early as
2014. As the digitalization and impact of the superhero’s kidney
health messages have grown, so too has the literature supporting
visual multimedia-based information to enhance the delivery of
health information in communities with low health literacy. In
particular, research has shown that animation is one of the most
effective ways to communicate complex health information to people
with both low and high health literacy. Animated information is
perceived as non-threatening, familiar and accessible across age
groups, cultures and literacy levels. By holding viewers’
attention, it may also improve the recall of information.6,7
The Kidney Kid’s animated adventures, which promote healthy
kidney behaviors, are available to children, parents, and teachers
across comics, activities, games, and videos through The Kidney Kid
game app and website, as well as print materials. The next
challenge is to widen the influence of these messages, which is
possible through social media, where many new parents turn for
parenting information.8
“By communicating directly with parents through Facebook and
Instagram, and involving them in our ‘I am The Kidney Kid’ campaign
using a digital filter to become their own kidney health
ambassadors, we can offer parents a new way of connecting with
their children while providing the credible information they are
seeking”, said Mr. de Wit. “We know from research that the middle
childhood years are critical for the adoption of health behaviors
that can have lifelong consequences, and we are excited about this
novel way of bridging the knowledge gap to better kidney health
worldwide”.9
Follow The Kidney Kid on Instagram @the.kidney.kid and
Facebook @thekidneykid.org
To download The Kidney Kid app, please visit the App
Store or Google Play and search for ‘The Kidney Kid’.
Visit The Kidney Kid website at thekidneykid.org
References
- World Kidney Day. 2022 WKD Theme. Campaign Toolkit. Available
from https://www.worldkidneyday.org/2022-campaign/2022-wkd-theme/.
Accessed February 2020.
- Langham, R., Kalantar-Zadeh, K., Bonner, A., Balducci, A.,
Hsiao, L., & Kumaraswami, L. et al. (2022). Kidney health for
all: bridging the gap in kidney health education and literacy.
Kidney International.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kint.2021.12.017
- Rajah, R., Hassali, M., & Murugiah, M. (2019). A systematic
review of the prevalence of limited health literacy in Southeast
Asian countries. Public Health, 167, 8-15.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.09.028
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2008). America’s
Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Health Information – An
issue brief.
- World Health Organization. (2013). Health literacy. The solid
facts. Copenhagen. Retrieved from
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/128703/e96854.pdf
- George, S., Moran, E., Duran, N., & Jenders, R. (2013).
Using Animation as an Information Tool to Advance Health Research
Literacy among Minority Participants. AMIA Annual Symposium
Proceedings, 475-84. Retrieved February 2022, from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900192/.
- Meppelink, C., van Weert, J., Haven, C., & Smit, E. (2015).
The Effectiveness of Health Animations in Audiences With Different
Health Literacy Levels: An Experimental Study. Journal Of Medical
Internet Research, 17(1), e11.
https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.3979
- Fromm, J. (2016). When Marketing To Millennial Parents:
Authenticity Is Required. Forbes. Retrieved February 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2016/09/21/when-marketing-to-millennial-parents-authenticity-is-required/?sh=5341ca954d85.
- Early and Middle Childhood | Healthy People 2020.
Healthypeople.gov. (2022). Retrieved March 2022, from
https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/early-and-middle-childhood.
ABOUT FRESENIUS MEDICAL CARE
Fresenius Medical Care is the world's leading provider of
products and services for individuals with renal diseases of which
around 3.8 million patients worldwide regularly undergo dialysis
treatment. Through its network of 4,171 dialysis clinics, Fresenius
Medical Care provides dialysis treatments for 345,000 patients
around the globe. Fresenius Medical Care is also the leading
provider of dialysis products such as dialysis machines or
dialyzers. Along with the core business, the company focuses on
expanding the range of related medical services in the field of
Care Coordination. Fresenius Medical Care is listed on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FME) and on the New York Stock Exchange
(FMS)
For more information visit the company’s website at
www.freseniusmedicalcare.asia.
DISCLAIMER
This release contains forward-looking statements that are
subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results could
differ materially from those described in these forward-looking
statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to,
changes in business, economic and competitive conditions, legal
changes, regulatory approvals, results of clinical studies, foreign
exchange rate fluctuations, uncertainties in litigation or
investigative proceedings, and the availability of financing. These
and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in Fresenius Medical
Care AG & Co. KGaA's reports filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA does
not undertake any responsibility to update the forward-looking
statements in this release.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220310005537/en/
Media Dr. Alexandra Villar Vice President Corporate
Communications and Branding Asia Pacific
Fresenius Medical Care 51/F, Sun Hung Kai Centre, 30
Harbour Road Wanchai, Hong Kong
Alexandra.Villar@fmc-asia.com www.freseniusmedicalcare.asia
Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE:FMS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024