Increasing Cervical Cancer Screening Rates Among Mexican-American Women

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research

Topics:
Cancer

Rates of cervical cancer are higher among women of Mexican heritage than among non-Hispanic white women. Mexican-American women are less likely than other women to have screening (Pap test) for this type of cancer. To increase screening rates in this population, the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston developed an intervention, AMIGAS, to promote cervical cancer screening. AMIGAS was recently revised and expanded by scientific collaborators at CDC in conjunction with a community health advisory group, promotoras (lay health educators recruited from the local community), and researchers from the University of Texas. The revised intervention now includes a video, information on a flip chart, a training guide for promotoras, and a listing of local cervical cancer screening services.

The center is testing the new components of the AMIGAS intervention with Mexican-American women who have not been screened for cervical cancer. During the 2-year project, 200 women aged 21 years or older will be recruited from three communities in the U.S. southwest: a Mexican-U.S. border community, an urban community, and a rural community. The women will be randomly assigned to one of four groups. The promotoras will conduct the entire AMIGAS intervention with one group, AMIGAS without the video component with a second group, and AMIGAS without the flipchart with a third group. Women in the fourth group will receive health care as usual without the AMIGAS intervention.

Six months after implementing AMIGAS, members of the project team will ask women in all four groups if they have had cervical cancer screening and use participants' medical records to validate responses. The researchers will compare screening rates among the four groups to see if the AMIGAS intervention, with and without its various components, significantly affected screening rates. If AMIGAS is shown to be effective, researchers will report on the characteristics, settings, and delivery processes that facilitate adoption, implementation, and maintenance of the intervention.

 

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