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Despite declining cervical cancer rates, ethnic minorities continue to bear an unequal burden in morbidity and mortality. While access to screening is a major barrier, low levels of knowledge and cultural influences have been found to play a part in underutilization of preventive services. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of a promontora-led educational intervention on cervical cancer and human papillomavirus knowledge in mainly Hispanic females attending a primary care clinic. One hundred ten females were recruited from the waiting room of a busy primary care clinic and invited to attend individual or small group educational sessions. Participants completed knowledge surveys pre- and post-intervention. An overall evaluation of the educational session was also completed. Following the educational intervention, participants showed an improvement in knowledge scores from a mean score of 10.8 (SD 3.43) out of a possible score of 18 to a mean score of 16.0 (SD1.51) (p < 0.001). 94.5 % of participants rated as excellent, the presentation of information in a way that was easy to understand, most reported that it was a good use of their time and that it lowered their anxiety about testing for early detection of cervical cancer. An educational intervention delivered by well-trained Promotora/Lay health care worker significantly improves patient's cervical cancer and HPV knowledge and can be a useful tool in patient education in the clinical setting especially with high risk populations.

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Hispanic women have almost double the cervical cancer incidence and are twice as likely to die from cervical cancer compared with non-Hispanic White women. Cervical cancer is preventable with screening, and based on available data, multiple component screening interventions have been proposed as a strategy to maximize screening, but such studies are lacking. We sought to test the effectiveness of a multicomponent screening intervention for primary prevention and early detection of cervical cancer among underserved Hispanic women. We conducted a prospective community-based cervical cancer screening intervention utilizing a quasi-experimental design. The intervention was theory based, delivered by bilingual community health workers, combined education and reduction of noneconomic barriers, and addressed economic barriers. Components included outreach, education, provision of no-cost Papanicolaou and human papillomavirus screening, on-site diagnostic and treatment colposcopy, and patient navigation with tracking to facilitate screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The main outcome was self-reported screening. We recruited 300 intervention group and 299 control group participants. Mean age of the sample was 44.7 years. The majority were Hispanic (98%), born in Mexico (79%), and had a Spanish-language preference (86%). In intention-to-treat analyses, the intervention group had a relative risk of screening of 14.58 (95% confidence interval = 8.57-24.80, p < .001) compared with the control group. A multilevel, multiple component culturally tailored bilingual cervical cancer screening intervention combining education, navigation, and no-cost screening can significantly increase cervical cancer screening uptake in a high-risk, underscreened population and has the potential to affect cervical cancer health disparities.