Abstract A020: Utilizing a community navigator's approach to improve breast and cervical cancer screening in the Deep South

Abstract

Abstract This presentation illustrates a community-based intervention utilizing community navigators to identify, recruit. and work to eliminate barriers to improve breast and cervical cancer screening in underserved communities in the Deep South. Background: The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center built an academic-community infrastructure called the Deep South Network for Cancer Control via funding from the National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health disparities from 2000-2016. The Deep South Network (DSN) utilized a Community Health Advisors (CHA) model combined with community engagement and coalition building to conduct community outreach and community-based cancer disparity research in medically underserved communities in Alabama and Mississippi. Through the utilization of the CHA model, cancer mammography screening rates among the Medicare population saw a 17% difference between AA women and Caucasian from 1999 to 2014. Purpose: To utilize the DSN model to train community navigators to identify and recruit rarely or never screened women for breast and cervical cancer screening. Community Navigators with support of the CHAs work to address client barriers to improve screening. Through a collaboration with the Alabama Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (ABCCEDP), UAB Community Navigators delivered a community intervention to address barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening. Methodology: The intervention was delivered in eight Alabama counties: seven rural and 1 urban over a 12-month period. Each county had a paid, community-based navigator who received 8-hour training on navigating clients for clinical services. Community Navigators delivered community-based education and identified and addressed barriers to increase cancer screening. Conclusion: At the end of the 12-month intervention, the community navigators held 212 events such as health fairs and community presentations in public housing and faith-based groups that yielded a reach of 16,038 individuals. Of these events, 273 women indicated an interest in or need for these screenings with 83 % of them between ages 40-54. Navigators worked through client barriers to see an overall significant increase of 5% in women enrolled in the ABBCECP compared to previous years in the nine counties Citation Format: Clauda M. Hardy, Kumari Seetela, Tara Bowman, Katherine Norris, Nancy Wright. Utilizing a community navigator's approach to improve breast and cervical cancer screening in the Deep South [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2018 Nov 2-5; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl):Abstract nr A020.