Guidance on Designing Health Fairs for Promoting Cancer Screening: Lessons Learned from Evaluation of 7 Health Fairs

Background: Special events such as health fairs or screening events are common strategies to increase cancer education and are widely used by health agencies.  Most of these special events aim to increase awareness and knowledge about health; yet, the effectiveness of this intervention strategy has not been fully examined.  The purpose of this study was to conduct a process evaluation of 7 health fairs across the country.   

Method: Health fairs to promote breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening were conducted in Fall 2013. Six months after the health fairs, participants from the events completed phone interviews to describe their opinions of the health fairs, rate health fair components and make suggestions for improvements.

Results: Overall, 63% of the participants (n=249) reported that the health fair was excellent. Fair components rated the highest were staff being knowledgeable, materials provided being easy to understand, and useful information provided.  Components rated lower were lack of sufficient communication about the event, organization of the fair and ease of moving around. Since the health fair, 60% reported that they read health information about cancer, 59% discussed cancer screening with family and friends, and 41% talked to their physician about cancer screening.

Conclusion: Design considerations for health fairs based on this evaluation are plan for event promotion to increase reach and impact of the health fair, consider the use of evidence-based strategies and onsite or referral for screening, and plan for data collection to help evaluate the effectiveness of the health fair.