Processes in Increasing Participation of African American Women in Cancer Prevention Trials: Development and Pretesting of an Audio-Card

J Health Commun. 2017 Dec;22(12):933-941. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2017.1382613. Epub 2017 Nov 13.

Abstract

The enrollment of African American women into cancer prevention trials (CPTs) continues to be low despite their higher cancer mortality rates. Clinical trials are vital to the discovery of new prevention, diagnostic, and treatment methods that improve cancer outcomes. This study addressed attitudes and beliefs associated with the sub optimal participation of African American women in CPTs through the development and pretesting of an educational tool. The use of community-engaged research (CER) in the formative phase of this study was the basis for developing an audio-card. Cultural and linguistic elements were incorporated into the tool's audio and written messages, and visual images highlighted the importance of CPT participation among African American women. The CPT beliefs and behavioral intent of 30 African American women who received information from the audio-card were compared with 30 controls. Findings indicated statistically significant differences at posttest between the control and treatment groups in personal value (p = .03), social influence (p = .03), and personal barriers (p = .0001); personal barriers in the pretest group also demonstrated significant differences (p = .009). Consideration of cultural context and language needs of populations are vital to the development and design of effective health promoting tools.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Black or African American / psychology*
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data
  • Clinical Trials as Topic / statistics & numerical data*
  • Culture
  • Female
  • Health Education / methods*
  • Humans
  • Literacy / ethnology
  • Literacy / statistics & numerical data
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms / ethnology*
  • Neoplasms / prevention & control*
  • Pamphlets
  • Patient Participation / statistics & numerical data*
  • Tape Recording
  • Young Adult