National statistics indicate that African American and Latina women in the US are disproportionately affected by cervical cancer, a disease that can be prevented, detected, and treated. The goal of the CDC-funded Cervical Cancer Prevention Project (CCPP) is to create a national model to improve timely Pap screening and follow-up practices among low-income African American and Latina women in urban and rural communities, respectively. The main intervention component of CCPP was community-based educational workshops covering topics such as cervical cancer, Pap screening, follow-up care, sexually transmitted diseases, and communication with health care providers and partners. The five-session workshop series was designed and implemented with each of the priority populations. Process and impact evaluation measures were collected during and after the workshops. Process evaluation data were collected through debriefings among trainers following each session and detailed, documented observation of the comments and behaviors of workshop participants. This data proved essential to understanding the unintended effects of the workshops among participants as well as informing and revising future series. Impact data measuring participants’ knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors were collected through pre- and post-workshop surveys. Not all evaluation strategies were equally effective or appropriate for the two communities. Based on lessons learned from evaluating CCPP’s community-based intervention, this presentation will provide insight for other public health researchers regarding the benefits and challenges of using various data collection strategies in African American and Latino communities and discuss alternatives for problematic strategies.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Articulate the importance of collecting both process and impact evaluation data from community-based interventions 2) Identify and discuss three data collection strategies that are effective or problematic for use in African American and Latino communities
Keywords: Evaluation, Ethnic Minorities
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.