Empowering Low-Income Asian American Women to Conduct Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling Test: A Community-Engaged and Culturally Tailored Intervention

Abstract

Background Asian American women face disproportionate burden of cervical cancer (CC) than non-Hispanic white women in the U.S. The goal of this study was to assess the feasibility and impact of a culturally tailored intervention to promote Human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling test among hard-to-reach Asian American women. Methods We adopted the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to conduct this efficacy study. A total of 156 female participants (56 Chinese, 50 Korean, and 50 Vietnamese) were recruited from community-based organizations (CBOs) in the greater Philadelphia metropolitan area. The intervention components included HPV-related education, HPV self-sampling test kit and instructions, group discussions, and patient navigations, all available in Asian languages. We examined several outcomes, including the completion of HPV self-sampling, HPV-related knowledge, perceived social support, self-efficacy, and comfort with the self-sampling test at post-intervention assessment. Results The majority of Asian American women had low annual household income (62.3% earned less than $20,000) and low educational attainment (61.3% without a college degree). We found significant increase in participants’ knowledge on HPV (baseline: 2.83, post: 4.89, P <.001), social support (baseline: 3.91, post: 4.09, P < .001), self-efficacy (baseline: 3.05, post: 3.59, P < .001), and comfortable with HPV self-sample test (baseline: 3.62, post: 4.06, P < .001). Conclusion To the best of our knowledge, this is the first intervention study that promoted HPV self-sampling test among Asian American women. Our findings showed that CBPR culturally tailored intervention of self-sampling was highly effective in empowering low-income Asian American women to conduct HPV self-sampling tests.

The levels of women’s awareness, experience, acceptability and preference for Vaginal Human Papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling in three provinces of China: a cross-sectional study

“…It has been demonstrated that income or economic level may influence cervical cancer screening rates and modality selection, with high-income nations having significantly higher cervical cancer screening rates than low- and middle-income nations [ 39 ]. However, our study drew interesting conclusions.…”

Editorial: Community Engagement Is Key to Promoting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health

“…Emanated from the urgent need duly noted in this collection, we conclude community engagement is critical to promoting AA and NH/PI health. 30 , 31 Community engagement will increase awareness of anti-Asian hate crimes, address misinformation and disinformation, and reduce the language barriers by pairing bilingual or multilingual researchers and community organizers with those who have unmet medical or mental health needs. Coordinated efforts among research communities may reduce redundancy and increase the cost-effectiveness of dissemination and implementation efforts in the diverse AA and NH/PI communities.…”