Engaging Traditional Medicine Providers in Colorectal Cancer Screening Education in a Chinese American Community: A Pilot Study

Abstract

IntroductionAlthough colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is effective in preventing colon cancer, it remains underused by Asian Americans. Because Chinese Americans often use traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), we conducted a pilot study to explore the feasibility and acceptability of having TCM providers deliver education about CRC screening.MethodsFour TCM providers (2 herbalists and 2 acupuncturists) were trained to deliver small-group educational sessions to promote CRC screening. Each provider recruited 15 participants aged 50 to 75. Participants completed a baseline survey on CRC-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors and then attended one 2-hour educational session delivered by the providers in Cantonese or Mandarin. Three months later, participants completed a postintervention survey.ResultsSixty participants were recruited from the San Francisco Chinatown neighborhood. The average age was 62.4 years. Most participants had limited English proficiency (96.7%), annual household income less than $20,000 per year (60%), and low educational attainment (65.1% < high school education). At postintervention (n = 57), significant increases were found in having heard of CRC (from 52.6% to 79.0%, P < .001) and colon polyps (from 64.9% to 84.2%, P < .001). Knowledge regarding screening frequency recommendations also increased significantly. The rate of ever having received any CRC screening test increased from 71.9% to 82.5% (P <.001). The rate of up-to-date screening increased from 70.2% to 79.0% (P = .04).ConclusionThe findings suggest that TCM providers can be trained to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach on CRC screening within their community. Participants reached by TCM providers increased CRC knowledge and self-reported CRC screening.

Association Between Cancer and Utilization of Traditional Chinese Medicine in U.S. Chinese Women: Findings From the PINE Study

“…Health workshops can help improve community members’ understandings of screenings and health conditions ( Dong, Li, Chen, Chang, & Simon, 2013 ), yet these resources are often underutilized. To increase awareness, past research has suggested incorporating TCM knowledge ( X. Wang et al, 2014 ), however, our findings demonstrate that TCM users already receive cancer screening. This challenges our previous assumption that Chinese women use less Western medicine due to beliefs in Eastern medicine.…”

Impact of Participatory Health Research: A Test of the Community-Based Participatory Research Conceptual Model

“…Due to space constraints, this paper reports on one illustrative case study to illuminate pathways and mechanisms in the model. This project was National Institute of Cancer- (NCI-) funded research to test the effectiveness of lay health workers (LHW) to increase colorectal cancer screening among Chinatown immigrants, given inequity in this cancer [ 33 , 34 ]. The primary partnership was between the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco State University, and NICOS Chinese Health Coalition, a community organization; partners also included the Chinatown Health office and AANCART, an NCI-network to address Bay Area Asian-American cancer inequities.…”

Interventions for cancer screening among Chinese Americans: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Four studies were quasi-experimental studies [ 32 , 36 – 38 ], and nine were randomized control studies [ 33 – 35 , 39 – 44 ]. Seven studies focused on the interventions on breast cancer screening with mammograms [ 32 , 36 , 38 – 42 ], five studies focused on the interventions on colorectal cancer screenings [ 34 , 35 , 37 , 43 , 44 ], and one study focused on the intervention on general cancer screening [ 33 ]. Specifically, results about the cultural and delivery characteristics of the interventions were systematically summarized, and the outcomes were meta-analyzed as shown below.…”

“…Durations for the group-based workshops ranged from 60 minutes [ 36 ] to 120 minutes [ 38 ]. Each group session was held with 5 to 8 attendees per group [ 37 ]. Question and answer sessions; Chinese language pamphlets, brochures, information sheets [ 32 , 43 , 44 ]; group discussions; flipcharts [ 37 , 44 ]; or follow-up individual telephone counseling [ 36 ] were provided in workshops.…”

“…Intervention led . Three studies were physician-led intervention studies [ 34 , 35 , 37 ] and ten were community worker or educator-led studies [ 32 , 33 , 36 , 38 – 44 ]. Two of the three physician-led intervention studies included two components, which were the physician-targeted components and patient-targeted components [ 34 , 37 ].…”