Working collaboratively with faith-based Lay Health Coordinators to define and measure indicators of success for a community based participatory breast health intervention with African American women in Baltimore

Isa Williams Miles, ScD, MS, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Room E5620, Baltimore, MD 21205, 202-413-8305, iwilliam@jhsph.edu and Janice Bowie, PhD, MPH, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins University, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205.

Eight African-American churches in Baltimore partnered with researchers to conduct a breast cancer prevention study. Lay Health Coordinators (LHCs) were selected by pastors at the partnering churches to serve as facilitators of Women's Health Day (WHD) events within their churches and to be active participants in all phases of the research process. Further, LHCs received training on the etiology of cancer, including issues unique to breast cancer detection, treatment, and control, women's health, research ethics, and procedures for following-up with program participants.

The purpose of this participatory project is to determine if developing faith-based programs in conjunction with church members can lead to a greater focus on health activities for congregations and neighboring communities. The primary outcome of interest prior to planning the WHD events was change in breast screening practices following participation in the program. After developing WHD programs, LHCs defined additional outcomes that would be indicative of success for this intervention. These include incorporating health information into a spiritual setting, reaching traditionally “hard to reach” women, creating a comfortable environment to discuss health issues, and LHCs being viewed as leaders in their congregations and trusted sources for health information. This presentation will highlight the participatory methods used to develop a survey to measure these outcomes, rationale for defining these issues as indicators of success, and the role of the LHCs in following up with program participants.

214 women participated in the WHD events. Follow-up began in January 2006 and is slated to be completed in June 2006.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, the participant will be able to