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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Cheryl Holt, PhD¹, Isabel Scarinci, PhD², Martha Crowther, PhD³, John Bolland, PhD³, Mark Litaker, PhD⁴, Mohamad Eloubeidi, MD⁵, Leonardo Stroud, MD, MPH⁶, Joanice Thompson, BSM¹, Chastity Roberts, BS, MPH, CHES¹, and Penny Southward, BS¹. (1) Division of Preventive Medicine, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, 1717 11th Ave. South, Medical Towers, Suite 641, Birmingham, AL 35205, 205-934-2816, cholt@uab.edu, (2) Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1717 11th Avenue South, Room 609, Birmingham, AL 35205, (3) School of Public Health/Department of Health Behavior, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South, RPHB 227H, Birmingham, AL 35294-0022, (4) Diagnostic Sciences, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South, LHRB 134, Birmingham, AL 35294-0007, (5) Medicine/Gastroenterology, Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue South, ZRB 408, Birmingham, AL 35294-0007, (6) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford HWY NE, Atlanta, GA 30341

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Significant racial disparities exist such that African Americans have higher incidence as well as mortality rates than all other racial/ethnic groups. A number of interventions have been proposed to address the underutilization of screening. One way of making cancer communication interventions more culturally relevant, and to potentially improve the effectiveness of church-based programs, is to integrate spiritually-based content. This is done by including relevant spiritual themes to frame the cancer educational message thereby putting health in a spiritual context. We worked with the community to develop a spiritually-based intervention promoting colorectal cancer screening in urban African American churches. The intervention consists of providing training to Community Health Advisors from each church, who deliver two educational group sessions on colorectal cancer and early detection to their fellow church members. The intervention is supplemented by spiritually-based print materials developed and pilot tested in this project. The second session is followed by an individualized telephone call by the Community Health Advisor, in which they work through each participant's barriers to screening, such as health insurance coverage or fear. Under the guidance of an Advisory Panel of community members, we developed and pilot tested the intervention content and print materials using an iterative process involving focus groups and cognitive response testing. Implementation and evaluation will follow as next steps.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Understand the importance and process of working closely with the community in intervention development.
• 2. Describe the process by which a spiritually-based educational program promoting colorectal cancer screening was developed and pilot tested.
• 3. Describe the multiple components of a spiritually-based educational program promoting colorectal cancer screening, including educational group sessions and individualized counseling calls delivered by Community Health Advisors, and supplementary print materials.

Keywords: Cancer Screening, Community-Based Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.ppt format, 2737.0 kb)