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

Abstract #117210

Julie Darnell, MHSA, AM¹, Elizabeth Calhoun, PhD², and Genevieve Birkby, MA¹. (1) Health Policy and Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health, 1603 W. Taylor, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-996-2712, jdarnell@uic.edu, (2) School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy & Administration, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, Room 758, Chicago, IL 60611

REACH OUT, funded under CDC's REACH 2010 initiative, is a faith-based collaborative in Chicago that partners 17 churches and a network of health centers to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in early detection of breast and cervical cancer for uninsured African American and Latina women. Adopting a health education strategy, REACH OUT has developed two distinct curricula: a comprehensive two-hour curriculum conducted in the churches and an abbreviated 15-minute curriculum conducted in the community. Designed as a tabletop flip-chart, the abbreviated curriculum is portable, allowing church advocates to educate women at community locations such as nail salons and laundromats. Since March 2003, church advocates have educated more than 5,300 women using the flip-chart. After each educational contact, respondents completed an eight-item ‘true-false' post test measuring gains in knowledge about breast and cervical cancer and reported demographic information. Analyses of post tests show that women across both populations achieved at least a passing score (70% correct). Further, Latina women performed significantly better than African American women (p<.0001), even though Latina women have received significantly fewer years of formal education (p<.0001), suggesting that an abbreviated curriculum is effective in educating women with low educational attainment. The percentage of uninsured women educated using the flip-chart was significantly higher than the uninsurance rates observed among African American (13% vs. 7%, p<.0001) or Latina church members (56% vs. 52%, p<.05), suggesting that a portable flip-chart curriculum is an effective device for faith-based programs to reach minority uninsured women who are not sitting in the pews.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe a faith-based health program in Chicago.
• List the advantages of adopting a portable tabletop flip-chart curriculum in faith-based health promotion programs.
• Identify an evaluation tool to measure gains in knowledge for participants exposed to an abbreviated educational curriculum.

Keywords: Faith Community, Cancer Prevention

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.

Recorded presentation