Abstract A056: Community scientist research advocacy program: Bridging cancer research and community advocacy
Authors: Hensel Brooke , Ibarra Eduardo , Aristizabal Carolina , Guzman Ileana , Barahona Rosa , Hazelton-Glenn Brandon , Lee Ji-Hyun , Zhang Zhongyue , Stern Mariana C. , Baezconde-Garbanati Lourdes , Suther Sandra , Webb Fern 
Published: December 2023

Community Scientist Research Advocacy (CSRA) programs are designed to connect researchers with community members, to effectively inform and involve the general population on clinical research. More programs like such are needing to be implemented into the community for better outcomes among cancer health disparities. The purpose of our study was to develop and evaluate a novel bi-coastal and bilingual program to inform, educate and empower community members to become cancer research advocates in Florida (FL) and California (CA). Our program was tailored for African American (AA) and Hispanic/Latino/a (H/L) adults. Primary objectives are to increase person power for cancer research advocacy and increase multi-directional communication between cancer advocates with cancer survivors, community members, academic scientists and policy makers. The CSRA program is a 13-week program implemented 100% virtual by the FL-CA Cancer Research, Education and Engagement (CaRE2) Health Equity Center, a bi-coastal partnership between the Florida A&M University, University of Florida, and University of Southern California where participants learned about cancers that disproportionately impact AA and H/L adults. Participants completed surveys at program start, midway, and end to assess knowledge gained and program evaluation, and a mentored advocacy project for community implementation. Five months after program end, we surveyed participants on impact and to provide support for their research advocacy. To date, a total of 26 adults have graduated from our program. We present data from the 2022 CSRA cohort (N = 20) that included participants from FL and CA, which are among the top five states in the U.S with the largest AA and H/L populations. Participants self-identified race, ethnicity, and gender were: 13 (68.4%) AA, 7 (26.3%) H/L, 90% female. This cohort had 90% program completion (N = 18) and 5 advocacy projects on breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreas cancer, and prostate cancer. Participant knowledge had a mean (SD) of 67.9 (7.9) at pre-survey and 71.4 (9.0) at post-survey, with a p-value of 0.2. Participants had a mean (SD) of 60.0 (14.6) at mid-survey and 68.2 (11.0) at post-survey, with a p-value of 0.13. We used a Likert scale to evaluate program expectations, which resulted in a mean (SD) of 94.0 (8.8) participants who ‘agreed’ that they were satisfied with the program at the start compared to a mean (SD) of 91.0 (12.9) of participants who ‘agreed’ that they were satisfied with the program at the end, with an overall p-value of 0.5. In conclusion, we present findings from a novel virtual CCS bi-coastal and bilingual training program tailored for AA and H/L adults that can foster multi-directional communication between cancer research advocates with multiple stakeholders to reduce cancer health disparities. We will further evaluate our program for 2023 cohort implementation.  

Citation Format: Brooke Hensel, Eduardo Ibarra, Carolina Aristizabal, Ileana Guzman, Rosa Barahona, Brandon Hazelton-Glenn, Ji-Hyun Lee, Zhongyue Zhang, Mariana C. Stern, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Sandra Suther, Fern Webb. Community scientist research advocacy program: Bridging cancer research and community advocacy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A056.