Colorectal cancer knowledge, perceived barriers to and benefits of screening, stage of readiness for screening, and screening behaviors among urban church-attending African Americans: Findings from and feasibility of a self-administered church-based survey

Colorectal cancer 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, including church-based interventions. As part of the baseline data collection process for a larger randomized controlled intervention study, this presentation reports the process of recruitment and conducting the self-administered surveys through the 16 study churches, as well as baseline findings with regard to levels of colorectal cancer knowledge, perceived barriers to and benefits of screening, stage of readiness for screening, and screening behaviors among urban church-attending African Americans age 50 and older. Both the intervention and survey instruments were based on the Health Belief Model and the Transtheoretical Model. Analyses were also conducted on demographic subgroups such as those who had and had not previously been screened for colorectal cancer. Implications for the intervention implementation are discussed.