Evaluating use of interpreters in educating immigrants on cancer prevention and screening guidelines.

Abstract

e18149 Background: Community outreach is commonly used to disseminate cancer prevention & screening guidelines (CPSG). Minority, immigrant populations with language barriers tend to be excluded from these activities due to the lack of bilingual professionals available to deliver this education. This program was aimed to test whether CPSG education improves knowledge after being taught by an English-speaking medical professional and nonmedical, community-based interpreters working in South Asian and Hispanic communities in New York City (NYC). Methods: Team members from two cancer centers and community-based minority organizations in NYC partnered to create and deliver programs on CPSG to linguistically diverse communities by an English-speaking medical professional utilizing community-based interpreters. Participant knowledge was assessed using matched pre-post surveys in participants’ respective languages. Behavioral intention was measured using a Likert scale from 1-4 with anchors at 1) “Will not do it” and 4) “Already have/doing it”. Paired t-tests were used to compare pre to post mean score and a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Behavioral intention rated positively if participants endorsed “will do it” or “already doing” the healthy behavior. Results: 188 community dwelling adults participated in 5 educational sessions, 122 completing pre and post assessments. Median age was 68, two thirds (69%) were female. 94% were born outside of the US, coming from 12 different countries, speaking 6 different primary languages. Knowledge increased from an average of 33% correct responses pre-session to 63% correct post-session – a statistically significant change ( t (121) = -10.58, p < .001). Behavioral intention scores reveal 83-96% participants reporting they will continue to or plan to seek screening and screening information from their doctors as well as make lifestyle changes related to decreasing their cancer risk. Conclusions: This program demonstrates CPSG can not only be taught in English with use of interpreters, but can be successfully received by immigrant community participants who historically may not have these programs available to them due to language barriers.