Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #105993

Linda Burhansstipanov, MPH, DrPH, Executive Director, Native American Cancer Research (NACR), 3022 S. Nova Rd, Pine, CO 80470, 303-838-9359, LindaB@NatAmCancer.org, Lynne Bemis, PhD, Unv. of Colorado Health Sciences Center, 4200 E. Ninth Ave, Denver, CO 80262, and Mark Dignan, PhD, MPH, Prevention Research Center, University of Kentucky, 2365 Harrodsburg Rd., Suite B100, Lexington, KY 40504.

"Genetic Education for Native Americans" (GENA®) was an NHGRI/ELSI-funded educational intervention designed to provide a unique genetics education program for Native American college and university students. Contrary to most other genetic education programs, this was implemented by an American Indian community-based organization and allowed for tailoring of the content for the college or lay community audiences. GENA® was implemented in two formats: as customized workshops that include instruction on selected objectives, and, as a 16-hour comprehensive curriculum. The null hypothesis was that there would be no difference in the post-test knowledge or attitudes of individuals who participated in either the independent module in comparison to similar content present through a comprehensive 16-hour workshop. A total of 410 people took part in GENA workshops: 54% were Native American, 21% were Hispanic, 2% were African American, 5% were Pacific Islander and 18% were Caucasian. About one quarter of the participants (23%) were undergraduate students, 30% were graduate students and 47% were community members, health professionals or administrators. Both the customized and the comprehensive workshops showed statistically significant increases in knowledge (p<.05) and we failed to reject the null hypothesis (i.e., both formats were effective). GENA® is currently being implemented in Tribal Colleges and in tribal organizations. It is now in a format that allows for real-time tailoring of the 29 objectives for the attending participants through the use of an Audience Response System and hyper linking of all objectives and lessons. All objectives include interactive activities.

Learning Objectives:

• The APHA session participant will be able to identify at least three unique features of the Genetic Education for Native Americans curriculum.
• The APHA session participant will be able to identify where additional information related to scheduling a GENA workshop can be obtained.

Keywords: Genetics, Native Americans

Related Web page: www.NatAmCancer.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.