Abstract 1361: Treatment fidelity evaluation of the cancer prevention intervention in African American, Latina, and Arab women.
Authors: Ford Sabrina , Meghea Cristian , Estes Tamika , Hamade Hiam , Lockett Mulisa , Williams Karen Patricia 
Published: August 2014

Background: Cancer education is important, especially for those facing health disparities. CHWs are increasingly utilized to educate and monitor cancer screening and surveillance for underserved populations. Here, we evaluate a randomized controlled treatment, utilizing Community Health Workers (CHW) to deliver breast and cervical cancer education intervention to African American (herein called Black), Latina, and Arab women in Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan. The main objectives of the study are to: 1) examine fidelity and consistency of treatment delivery and 2) assess qualitative elements of the intervention. Methods: CHWs and their clients recruited additional family members into the intervention. After randomization at total of 514 women were included in the study (305 intervention, 209 control). We surveyed only the intervention group because they received a behavioral intervention whereby the control group was given only reading materials. Family clusters received two home visits. The first session related to breast cancer education and the second session to cervical cancer. After each session, all women completed an evaluation of the fidelity and integrity of the education using the NIH Treatment Fidelity Workgroup Tool (Borelli, 2005). The CHW Survey included questions regarding their training, fidelity in treatment delivery and qualitative items. Results: The intervention group (n = 305) was made up of 48% Black, 11% Latina, and 41% Arab women. Almost all (&gt; 90%) women agreed that they received the treatment in the way that it was intended. All 16 CHWs responded affirmatively as well. The greater majority (&gt;90%), felt that they delivered the treatment the way it was intended and delivered it in the same way other Kin KeeperSM CHWs did. Qualitatively, 91% of CHWs felt they made an impact on participants’ cancer literacy and were satisfied with the project. In addition, CHWs indicated that “serving and educating their community” was personally important. Conclusions: First, both participants and CHWs indicated that the program was mutually rewarding, indicating that there was “cross fertilization and cross benefit” of working with each other. These benefits served to endorse and confirm that CHWs are a very important mechanism in increasing health literacy in the community and referring underserved individuals to health providers. Second, with strong treatment fidelity, these findings further validate the Kin KeeperSM program and its instruments (Williams, et al., 2011) and thus has the potential to be replicated for of number of diseases and in a variety of venues especially for those facing health disparities.

Citation Format: Sabrina Ford, Cristian Meghea, Tamika Estes, Hiam Hamade, Mulisa Lockett, Karen Patricia Williams. Treatment fidelity evaluation of the cancer prevention intervention in African American, Latina, and Arab women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1361. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1361