Many years of research have proven that mammograms are an extremely important tool to detect breast cancer as early as possible. In spite of all this information, many women don't get regular mammograms. Research has shown that minority women, poor women, or women who live in rural areas are especially unlikely to get a mammogram.
This study shows that personal contact may inspire more women to get mammograms. When another woman from the community who had been trained in health care education (a lay health adviser) visited minority, poor or rural women in their area, the women who were visited got more mammograms than those who weren't visited.
It is heartening to imagine the impact on breast cancer and other illnesses if lay health advisers were available to everyone who could benefit from them. If you are interested in becoming a lay health adviser, contact your local department of community health for information.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who receive visits from a lay health advisor are more likely to undergo the recommended mammography screening for breast cancer, a new study conducted in a poor, rural population shows.
"Lay health advisors provide a personalized intervention, as well as navigation through the health care system, social networking, and social support, and serve as a link between community members and the medical care system through outreach, education (and) information dissemination," Dr. Electra Paskett of Ohio State University in Columbus and her colleagues write.
Many women don't get regular mammograms, while poor and minority women, as well as those living in rural areas, have particularly low rates of breast cancer screening, Paskett and her team point out in the September 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
To investigate whether visits from community members trained to provide health care information could improve mammography screening rates, the researchers tested the intervention in a poor, rural North Carolina county where breast cancer rates exceeded the state average.
Paskett and her team randomly assigned 841 women to three visits from a lay health advisor over a 9- to 12-month period, or to mailings on cancer screening but no in-person visits.
None of the women, who were 40 years of age or older, had had a mammogram in the previous 12 months. One third of the women were African American, 42 percent were Native American, and 25 percent were white. Two Native American women and one African American woman from the community were trained as health advisors.
Twelve to fourteen months later, the researchers found that 42.5 percent of the women in the lay health advisor group had gotten mammograms compared with 27.3 percent of the women in the literature-only group. The effect was seen in all of the ethnic groups represented in the study.
Barriers to undergoing mammography, such as not knowing where to get the test, were significantly reduced among the women who received visits from the health advisors.
The authors conclude that lay health advisors could help reduce the sharp disparities in health seen among US ethnic groups.
SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, September 6, 2006.
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