Using touchscreen kiosks to overcome health literacy barriers among medically underserved Latinas

Breast and cervical cancer are among the few cancers that are detectable early through regular screening. Early detection and treatment of these cancers significantly improve the chances of survival. Latinas experience high rates of late-stage detection and lower survival rates despite their relatively low breast and cervical cancer incidence rates. This is especially pronounced among low-income f Latinas who face a significant shortfall in meeting Healthy People 2010 goals for cancer screening. Yet economic barriers to screening and early detection have been removed by the advent of national programs that provide assistance to low-income women who cannot afford the costs of breast and cervical screening. Hence the public health challenge is to overcome cultural, linguistic and health literacy barriers to screening among low-income Latinas to improve their screening rates on a sufficiently large scale to reduce this health disparity through early detection and treatment. Health IT can be brought to bear on this problem. Interactive, multimedia kiosks can be leveraged as a cancer education platform to deliver culturally competent, breast and cervical cancer education to low-income Latinas.

This presentation describes education interventions delivered to low-income, low literacy Latinos through interactive, multimedia kiosks that overcome language and health literacy barriers to promote adherence to breast and cervical cancer screening. Touchscreen kiosks eclipse the need for computer literacy, while non-linear cancer education modules use digital video, animation, graphics, audio narration and music to provide visually engaging, culturally familiar and cognitively accessible information that motivate women to obtain breast and cervical cancer screening. Unlike interventions based on health professionals and lay health educators, cancer education kiosks provide an individualized, self-paced learning experience that is consistent across each occurrence and can be deployed widely at a significantly lower cost. Randomized efficacy studies of these interventions demonstrated significant knowledge gains, attitude and behavior change.