214232 Overcoming cancer screening disparities among low-income Latinos: Outcomes of a CRC education intervention

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Armando Valdez, PhD , HealthPoint Institute, Mountain View, CA
Rene Salazar, MD , Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Marilyn A. Winkleby, MPH, PhD , Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Susan Stewart, PhD , Division of Biostatistics, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
María E. Fernández, PhD , Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX
Latino colorectal cancer screening rates are significantly below the Healthy People 2010 benchmark. CDC reports that only 24.4% of Latinos over age 50 had received a FIT/FOBT within the past two years and 46.6% had ever had a sigmoidoscopy; the screening rates for low-income Latinos were substantially lower. This screening disparity places Latinos at high risk for late-stage cancer diagnoses and lower chances of survival. Regular colorectal cancer screening is the key to improving Latino colorectal cancer survival, yet screening promotion interventions must effectively overcome significant and persistent barriers. This cancer education intervention was designed to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate colorectal cancer information to low-income, low literacy Latinos through interactive, multimedia touchscreen kiosks to overcome attention, knowledge, attitudinal, linguistic and cultural barriers. The intervention content was guided by formative research that identified barriers to screening as well as pathways to screening among low-income Latinos adherent to current colorectal cancer screening recommendations. A randomized control study was conducted with 750 low-income Latino men and women to examine the effectiveness of the intervention to improve knowledge about colorectal cancer, improve attitudes towards screening, increase self-efficacy and promote adoption of screening and risk reduction behavior. A pretest was administered to study participants before subsequently randomizing them to either intervention or control groups. A posttest was administered six months past baseline and statistical analyses of those data examined the efficacy of the intervention and the magnitude of the intervention effect. This presentation describes the intervention outcomes and their implications to reducing health disparities.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Communication and informatics
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the use of interactive, multimedia, touchscreen kiosks to deliver engaging, culturally and linguistically appropriate colorectal cancer messages to low-income, low literacy Latinos. 2. Identify the study design, methods and measures used to assess the efficacy of this cancer education, screening promotion intervention. 3. Explain the effectiveness of the intervention on improving CRC screening rates among study participants. 4. Assess the applicability of this cancer screening promotion intervention to reduce health disparities among other populations at high risk for cancer mortality.

Keywords: Cancer Screening, Communication Effects

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Principal Investigator for this study.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.