Healthy Hmong Women: Utilizing Lay Community Health Workers (CHWs) to Promote Cervical and Breast Cancer Literacy and Screening in the Hmong Community

Hmong women in the United States experience significant disparities in cervical and breast cancer outcomes, a consequence of lower rates of cancer screening and resultant diagnosis at later disease stage.  In an effort to improve cancer health outcomes for Hmong women, the Milwaukee Consortium for Hmong Health – founded in 2008 to facilitate engagement with the Hmong community around women’s cancer health and wellness – developed a culturally-grounded lay community health worker (CHW) program to increase cancer literacy and rates of cancer screening.  This presentation will discuss the creation of the Consortium and the community-engaged processes that led to the emergence of lay cancer health education as a stated priority of the Milwaukee Hmong community.  We will provide an overview of the Healthy Hmong Women program, describing the development of this culturally-grounded lay CHW model, its approach, and the curriculum and training developed for use with lay Hmong community members.  In addition, we will evaluate the effectiveness of this lay CHW model in improving awareness of cancer as a health concern in the Hmong community, cancer literacy, and intent to screen.  Finally, we will discuss some of the challenges in implementing this program and detail our plans to expand the program to include Hmong men and other cancers of concern in the community.  The academic and community partners who collaboratively developed the program and curriculum will jointly participate in the presentation, each describing their unique contributions and collaborative approach. Our CHWs, however, will not be part of the presentation team.