Abstract C85: Community-based participatory research leads to sustainable lifestyle intervention program for reducing breast cancer risk among African American and Latina women

Minority women are underrepresented in clinical research, which impedes progress in understanding and eliminating health disparities. Reducing health disparities is an important goal of public health community. Recent data suggests that community-based participatory research (CBPR) which systematically involves the affected communities in each stage of the research process-inception, planning, recruitment, conduct and education is the key to reducing health disparities. Between 2001 and 2005 approximately 10,000 invasive and 2,000 in situ breast cancer cases were reported in Region 5 of the San Bernardino County women in California. Although data reveals that the age adjusted incidence rate of 23.7 for in situ breast cancer cases in the Region 5 population is lower than the state-wide rate of 27.3, the number of in situ cases in the area rose from 9.6 in 1988 to 24.8 in 2007. Obesity rates for African American (AA) and Latina adults in the San Bernardino County are 34%. The emergence of the obesity epidemic worldwide has been associated with increases in metabolic syndrome, breast cancer, and type 2 diabetes in the industrialized countries. The proposed pilot study used a CBPR method to study women9s perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards participating in a clinical breast cancer study that involved blood. Methods: A community-based participatory mixed-methods approach, including a 6-month lifestyle intervention education program was employed. Participants were recruited using purposive convenience sampling that evaluated educational program designed to increase women9s knowledge of positive attitudes and participation in breast cancer clinical studies and simple changes in lifestyle that result in reduced risk for breast cancer. To evaluate the effectiveness of the educational intervention, we used knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and perception-based questionnaire, and in-depth interviews to assess changes before and after the educational experience. Results: Fifty eight women that included 36 African American and 22 Latina women participated in the educational program, out of which twenty five women were recruited into the lifestyle intervention program that required providing blood to test for metabolic syndrome and risk for breast cancer. All the women in the intervention study were willing to provide blood for the study. Seventy six percent of the women in the lifestyle intervention program were either obese or experienced metabolic syndrome. At the end of six months, 78% of the women who participated in the study reduced their body fat by 2% change, by reducing dietary fat consumption. Approximately 93% of the women increased servings of fruits and vegetables in their diet and engaged in some form of exercise after their enrollment into the study. This program is currently sustained by community support groups, after the end of the grant. The project director meets with the women once a month and monitors their life style changes. Conclusion: Community-based participatory research projects that engage community partners through the entire process of research planning and conduct may result in effective sustainable projects that will result in resilient communities. Funding supported by Kaiser Permanente Fontana Community Benefit Grant. Citation Format: Padma Pauline Tadi Uppala, Padma Pauline Tadi Uppala, Loistine Herndon, Hildemar Dos Santos, Amanda Dupre, Persila Mohammadnia, Maheswari Senthil. Community-based participatory research leads to sustainable lifestyle intervention program for reducing breast cancer risk among African American and Latina women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C85. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-C85