Abstract B12: “Present Your Body”: Cancer awareness within the African American faith community in South Los Angeles.
Authors: Lucas-Wright Anna Aziza , Jones Loretta , Smith James L. , Vargas Roberto , Vadgama Jaydutt V. , Maxwell Annette E. , Bazargan Mohsen 
Published: August 2014

Introduction: The overarching goal of the “Present Your Body” study was to gather data from the African American faith community (the most well attended hub of information dissemination, service and advocacy in the African American Diaspora), relative to cancer awareness and behaviors associated with prevention, screenings for detection, and adherence. The specific aim of this submission is to examine the relationship between access to health care and knowledge of cancer screening tests and guidelines and cancer prevention, and attitudes towards early detection of cancer.

Methods: We used a community partnered-participatory research approach to develop our study aims and survey design. After IRB approval, the Principal Investigator (PI) conducted the community-engagement tasks with 13 churches - successfully garnering participation of 11 predominantly African American churches, including African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, and Non-Denominational churches. Church membership ranged from 50 to over 700. On the day of data collection, the PI and one of the Co-PI's described the study and consent form to potential respondents at a designated time during the church service. Participants completed a self-administered survey in English. Assistance with reading the survey was provided to 45 respondents requesting additional support. Survey participation ranged from 11 to 149 per church.

Results: Of the 801 respondents (96%, African Americans, 4%, other), 75 individuals (9.4%) reported that they have been diagnosed with a cancer, including 25 with breast cancer, 17 with cervical cancer and 13 with prostate cancer. Although 503 (63%) of respondents reported that one of their family members (blood relatives) had been diagnosed with some type of cancer, 49% of respondents aged 50 and older had never discussed their personal risk of cancer with a doctor.

Approximately 20% of participants had no health insurance. Four out of five respondents did not have a regular or primary care physician and 11% usually went to a hospital emergency room when they were sick or needed advice about their health. One out of five participants reported fair or poor health.

Results of the one-way ANOVAS examining associations between access to health care and cancer related knowledge and beliefs showed that respondents 1) with no health insurance, 2) who did not have a regular doctor, 3) who reported using a non-office based physician when they need medical care, and 4) who did not visit a physician within the last two years for a routine checkup or general physical exam all reported a lower level of perceived and test-based cancer prevention and screening knowledge. Similarly, they reported belief in less favorable survival outcomes even when cancers are detected early.

Conclusions: Confirming previous studies, our data shows an association between lack of access to primary care among African Americans in a faith-based setting and a lower level of knowledge of cancer screening and prevention. Findings from this study will be shared with the participating churches in an effort to inform future programs to promote cancer awareness and early detection and programs for cancer survivors.

Acknowledgment: This work was supported by: 1) the CDU/UCLA Cancer Center Partnership to Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities, NIH/NCI Grant # U54-CA-143931-03 (PI: Vadgama JV); and 2) the NIH/NIMHD grant U54MD007598 (formerly U54RR026138) (PI: Norris, K).

Citation Format: Anna Aziza Lucas-Wright, Loretta Jones, James L. Smith, Roberto Vargas, Jaydutt V. Vadgama, Annette E. Maxwell, Mohsen Bazargan. “Present Your Body”: Cancer awareness within the African American faith community in South Los Angeles. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2012 Oct 27-30; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2012;21(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B12.