Objectives: In this study, we pilot-tested #CRCFree, a Facebook-based intervention aimed at reducing colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in rural Appalachian adults at risk for CRC. Methods: Participants were 56 rural Appalachian adults aged > 50 years. Daily #CRCFree Facebook
posts addressed diet, physical activity, and CRC screening. Participants' sociodemographics, diet, body mass index, physical activity, and CRC screening status were measured pre- and post-intervention. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) assessed dietary
patterns. Facebook engagement was measured throughout the intervention. A post-intervention focus group evaluated intervention acceptability. Results: Participants were Caucasian, aged 58 ± 6 years, and predominantly female (66%). Post-intervention, HEI scores increased (49.9
± 9.9 vs 58.6 ± 12.1, p = <.001), and DII scores decreased from baseline (2.8 ± 1.1 vs 1.6 ± 1.7, p = .002). There was no change in physical activity, BMI, or CRC screening status. Focus group participants found the intervention to be educational and motivating.
Conclusions: These results provide preliminary evidence to support using Facebook to address CRC risk in this population. Participants were responsive to this intervention, and Facebook is a novel and accessible modality for health promotion.
Interventions addressing the barriers peculiar to this population may alleviate these barriers and improve Pap screening use in this population. Providers have the opportunity to influence screening attitudes of African-born women by providing awareness and patient-targeted interventions.
Racial disparities in breast cancer screening, morbidity, and mortality persist for Black women. This study examines Black women’s mammography beliefs and experiences with specific focus on barriers to mammography access in an urban city in the South East, United States. This retrospective, qualitative study used Penchansky and Thomas’ conceptualization of health care access as the framework for the data analysis. In-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 39 Black women. Structural and personal factors continue to create barriers to mammography among Black women. Barriers to mammography were identified for each of the Penchansky and Thomas five dimensions of access to care: accessibility, affordability, availability, accommodation, and acceptability. Clinical practice strategies to increase mammography screening in Black women must be multifactorial, patient-centered, and culturally congruent. Policy development must address the structural barriers to mammography screening through expansion of health insurance coverage and increased accessibility to health care.
Health disparities researchers attempting to engage and effectively deliver interventions to underserved populations often encounter a number of challenges ranging from geographical considerations to more complex issues of medical mistrust. While there are a number of strategies researchers may employ to address these challenges, one of the most successful of these has been the use of community health workers (CHWs). Despite the documented success of CHWs, little information exists on the use of theory-driven intervention strategies with these community partners. Researchers who have partnered with CHWs tend to provide brief descriptions of training strategies and provide little discussion of the challenges and barriers to training a lay population in the delivery of technical interventions, including ensuring fidelity to the intervention protocol. The purpose of this article is to describe the feasibility of training CHWs to deliver a motivational interviewing intervention to promote cancer screening in underserved populations. With this article we present an innovative way to use motivational interviewing delivered by CHWs. Specifically, we will detail the development of the training protocol, the implementation of that training in a variety of research settings, and the development and implementation of fidelity protocols. We will use examples from two research studies where CHWs were successfully trained to use MI to promote cancer screening in underserved communities to highlight the challenges and barriers faced in developing and implementing the training and strategies used to overcome these challenges during the refinement of the intervention.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.