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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing
4113.0: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 - 12:45 PM

Abstract #149563

REACHing Vietnamese-American Women: A Community Model for Promoting Breast Cancer Screening

Steve McPhee, MD1, Thoa Nguyen1, Ngoc BuiTong, MHA2, Tung Nguyen, MD1, Ching Wong, BA1, Ky Quoc Lai, MD, MPH1, Khanh Quoc Le, MD, MPH1, Ginny Gildengorin, PhD3, and Gem Le, MHS4. (1) Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94143-0320, 502-1539, Tung.Nguyen@ucsf.edu, (2) Santa Clara County Ambulatory and Community Health Services, 2325 Enborg Lane #3H320, San Jose, CA 95128, (3) Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 3333 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94143-0856, (4) Department of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley, 140 Warren Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720

Problem: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Vietnamese-American women, yet many do not receive breast screening on schedule.

Methods: The Vietnamese REACH for Health Initiative (VRHI) Coalition is conducting a 3-year controlled study (2004-07) to increase initial and repeat breast screening among Vietnamese-American women in Santa Clara County (SCC), California. The Community Action Plan consists of 5 components to promote breast screening: media campaign, lay health workers outreach, patient navigator, continuing education for Vietnamese physicians, and support for a free screening program. Community-wide effectiveness is measured by pre-intervention (2004) and post-intervention (2007) cross-sectional telephone surveys of 600 Vietnamese women age >40 in both SCC and Harris County (HC), Texas (comparison community).

Results: In 2004, rates of breast cancer screening were low in both SCC and HC. While 92% and 83%, respectively, reported ever receiving clinical breast examination (CBE), only 74% and 60% had CBE within 1 year. Similarly, 88% and 76% reported ever receiving a mammogram, but only 69% and 54% reported receiving a mammogram within 1 year. After 30 months of intervention implementation ends in 4/07, the post-intervention surveys will be completed in 6/07 and will enable pre-post comparisons and assessment of differences in changes by site over time. Regression models will determine intervention effect, as well as sociodemographic, health and access, and attitudinal factors associated with screening.

Conclusion: A community-wide intervention to improve breast screening rates for Vietnamese-American women was feasible, and its effectiveness evaluated by rigorous evaluation methods.

Learning Objectives:

Keywords: Breast Cancer Programs,

Related Web page: www.healthisgold.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Innovative Theories and Methodologies to Improve the Health of AAPI Populations

The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA