Pathways to Early Cancer Detection for Vietnamese Women: Suc Khoe La Vang! (Health is Gold!)

Abstract

To promote breast and cervical screening among Vietnamese women, a neighborhood-based intervention was developed that included small-group education, distribution of Vietnamese-language educational materials, and health fairs. The rationale for these modes of intervention is described. A pretest/posttest controlled trial is used to evaluate the intervention. San Francisco, California, is the experimental community; Sacramento, California, is the comparison community. The study hypothesizes that postintervention measurements of screening rates will reflect significantly greater increases among women in the experimental community than in the comparison community. This article reports results from the 1992 baseline household survey of 306 Vietnamese women in San Francisco and of 339 Vietnamese women in Sacramento. There were no significant differences in screening rates between the two communities. Only 50-54% of women had received routine checkups; 44-55%, mammograms; 40-45%, clinical breast examinations; 40-46%, Pap smear tests; and 58-65%, pelvic examinations.