Breast cancer, currently the second leading cause of death in women in the United States, is clearly a public health problem. Because it is not yet known how to prevent breast cancer from occurring, the most effective strategy is early detection. While numerous education and behavior change campaigns have been conducted to encourage women to practice methods of early detection, no more than 40 percent of all women practice breast self-examination (BSE) and only 17 percent of all women over the age of fifty have had a mammogram.
The specificaims of the proposed SBIR are: (1) to target hard-to-reach women not ordinarily exposed to general breast cancer educational campaigns; (2) to address women's psychological barriers to practicing early detection techniques; and (3) to provide support information for families and friends of breast cancer patients.
These aims will be accomplished through the development of a video library. This library will consist of a five part videoseries, each fifteen to twenty minutes in duration, targeted to: (1) adolescents; (2) pre-menopausal women; (3) menopausal women; (4) symptomatic women; and (5) post-operative women and their families. The tests of Phase I consist of: (1) developing the content areas for each of the five tapes (including conducting focus groups); (2) drafting the scripts for the videotapes; (3) review and criticism of the draft scripts by the Advisory Committee; (4) revising the draft scripts based on Advisory Committee recommendations; and (5) developing production schedules for early in Phase II. Theproduct of Phase I will be five scripts with detailed schedules for production in Phase II.
