Recorded presentation

Rita Singhal, MD, MPH¹, Ricardo A. Contreras, MPH¹, Sarah Stone-Francisco, MPH², Sarah E. Samuels, DrPH², and Ellen Eidem, MS¹. (1) Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, Office of Women's Health, 3400 Aerojet Ave., 3rd floor, El Monte, CA 91731, 626-569-3806, rsinghal@ucla.edu, (2) Samuels & Associates, 663 13th Street, 3rd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612

Various media and outreach approaches can be used to promote cervical cancer screening to ethnically diverse, low-income women. Certain methods may be more effective in reaching specific ethnic groups in this high risk population. A multi-cultural, multi-lingual media and outreach campaign with a 1-800 hotline used as a referral and appointment tool was launched by the Los Angeles County Office of Women’s Health to promote free Pap tests. Four ethnically oriented marketing firms were hired to develop paid and unpaid media strategies using television, radio, print and grassroots efforts to reach eight targeted ethnic communities. Between January 2002 and August 2003, over 25,600 calls were answered and 11,376 appointments were made. Main sources of referrals included television (40.9%), outreach (28.3 %), newspaper/print (9.9%) and friends (9.2%). The most effective media strategy per appointment scheduled was outreach for African American and Chinese, television for Latina, and print for Korean women. The least costly media approach per ethnicity, taking into account the total cost of each media type and the number of women responding to it, was radio for Chinese ($38/per appointment), print for Korean ($80/per appointment), television for Armenian ($138/per appointment) and Latina ($65/per appointment) and outreach for African American women ($64/per appointment). There were distinct differences in the media approach that was least costly and most effective in getting each ethnic group to schedule and keep their appointments. Future media campaigns promoting cervical cancer screening that target specific ethnic groups can be tailored to use these most effective approaches.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

(1)Describe the specific media and outreach strategies used in a multi-cultural cervical cancer screening promotion campaign; (
• Identify the media strategy that is most effective in reaching targeted low-income ethnic women (
• Determine the least costly media approach per ethnic group targeted for cervical cancer screening.

Keywords: Cervical Cancer, Media Campaigns

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.

Recorded presentation