Colorectal cancer screening promotion education for low-income Latinos: An interactive touchscreen kiosk intervention

Healthy People 2010 sets a 50% colorectal cancer screening rate as the national goal for having had a FOBT within the past two years and for ever having had a sigmoidoscopy. Only 24.4% of Latinos over age 50 had received a FOBT within the past two years and 46.6% had ever had a sigmoidoscopy, according to 2006 CDC data. This health disparity is greater among low-income Latinos. These relatively low screening rates place Latinos at high risk for diagnoses at an advanced stage of the disease, which diminishes their chances of survival. Regular colorectal cancer screening remains the pivotal obstacle to improved Latino colorectal cancer survival. The need for interventions to improve screening and early detection is an urgent public health problem, yet the challenge is to effectively overcome cultural, linguistic and attitudinal barriers with an intervention that promotes adoption of recommended screening and risk reduction practices by low-income Latinos.

This presentation describes an education intervention designed to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate colorectal cancer information to low-income, low literacy Latinos. The intervention employs interactive touchscreen kiosks to overcome language and cultural barriers in delivering cancer education messages about screening and prevention, correct misconceptions about colorectal cancer risk factors, improve attitudes toward screening, and model recommended screening and risk reduction behaviors. The design of the intervention was guided by formative research that identified barriers to screening among non-adherent, low-income Latinos as well as pathways to screening among low-income Latinos adherent to the 2005 USPSTF recommendations for colorectal cancer screening.