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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Adina J. Smith, PhD, Allison Gidley, Suzanne Christopher, PhD, Alma Knows His Gun McCormick, and Bethany Letiecq. Health & Human Development, Montana State University, 218 Herrick Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717-3540, 4069945993, adinas@montana.edu

Native American women have higher rates of cervical cancer than the US All Races rate. Among Native Americans of all regions, mortality rates from cervical cancer are among the highest for Northern Plains Indian women. Messengers for Health on the Apsáalooke (Crow Indian) reservation is a community-based participatory research project aimed at educating women about cervical health and increasing the proportion of women who receive Pap tests. In 2005, we completed our first four years of the project which included pre- and post-surveys of women's knowledge, understanding and behaviors regarding cervical health. Surveys were developed by project staff and Apsáalooke community members and participants were interviewed by Apsáalooke women who were trained to interview in a culturally sensitive manner. A random sample of 101 women were initially interviewed and 83 of the same women were interviewed for the post-survey. In this session, we will present a brief overview of the project, a description of the survey development and interviewing process, pre- post-survey results, and limitations of our survey. Future directions of the project as guided by the survey results will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives: