Using Informal Caregivers to Communicate With Women About Mammography

Abstract

Only a small proportion of women over age 35 routinely obtain screening mammograms, even though use of the technology appreciably reduces breast cancer mortality, the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. Using a posttest-only control group design, this study employed hair stylists as lay health educators to increase intention to obtain a mammogram among their clients 35 years or older. Theories of informal network communications, social support, and planned behavior provided the conceptual frameworks for the study. Eight hair stylists at a local salon were trained to give clients in the experimental group information about breast cancer, including the benefits and the risks of mammography, and to encourage them to schedule an appointment for a mammogram if they had not had one recently. Clients in the control group received a hair-stylist message and a pamphlet on nutrition. At 2-week follow-up, significant differences were observed between the two groups of clients in knowledge of breast cancer risk, in belief about the value of mammography for early detection of breast cancer, in perceived behavioral control, and in intention to obtain a mammogram (p =. 0001). At 1-year follow-up, women in the experimental group who responded were twice as likely (44%) to report having had a mammogram during the previous year compared to controls (21%). This low-cost intervention shows potential for activating informal social support systems to reach women at risk with messages designed to increase their utilization of mammography.