A Trial to Increase Mammography Utilization Among Los Angeles Hispanic Women

• Published in: Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 1998-08, Vol.9 (3), p.309-321
• Main Authors: Fox, Sarah A, Stein, Judith A, Gonzalez, Rosa E, Farrenkopf, Mary, Dellinger, Ann
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Attitude to Health; Awareness; Cancer; Catholicism; Community-Institutional Relations; Female; Health Behavior; Health Care Utilization; Health policy; Health Promotion - methods; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Health Services Needs and Demand; Health services utilization; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic Americans - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Logistic Models; Los Angeles; Los Angeles, California; Mammography; Mammography - statistics & numerical data; Mammography - utilization; Middle Aged; Outreach Programs; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Poverty; Prevention; Tests; Women; Womens Health Care
• ISSN: 1049-2089; 1548-6869; 1548-6869
• DOI: 10.1353/hpu.2010.0218

The objective of this program was to increase mammography screening rates among Hispanic women through a series of targeted community-wide interventions. A diverse array of outreach efforts was offered by the program to increase awareness and use of screening mammography. Before the program, 12 percent of the Hispanic women surveyed in the intervention community had been screened, compared with 27 percent after the program. There was no change in screening among Hispanic women in the control community (23 percent before and 24 percent after the program). The program demonstrated that the awareness and behavior of "hard-to-reach" underscreened Hispanic women can be changed through intensive targeted outreach and that a church-based cancer control program can play an effective role in the process. This finding has national health policy implications.