Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and its collaborators propose to survey the needs of, and assess the effectiveness of cancer control methods targeted to special populations of U.S.-born and Caribbean-born Blacks, and Puerto Rican, Dominican, Columbian, and Ecuadorian Hispanics living in New York City (NYC). The main objective is to determine the extent to which prevention, early detection and diagnostic/treatment interventions need to be tailored to different ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups to be effective.
The specific aims of the proposed investigation are as follows: 1. Recruit black and hispanic focus groups of cancer patients, other users of general health care services, and the general public to explore in depth: 1) the commonality and differences of cancer control needs among different ethnic and SES groups, 2) the common and unique barriers to these groups' use of cancer control services, and 3) the reliability and validity of existing methods of querying different ethnic and SES groups about these behaviors and interventions designed to change them; 2. Based on the analysis of focus group input and the review of existing questionnaires, develop, pilot, and complete a population-based telephone survey of 2600 respondents (i.e. 400 U.S.-born Blacks, 400 English Speaking Caribbean-born Black Immigrants, 200 Haitian Black Immigrants, 400 Puerto Rican, 400 Dominican, 400 Colombian, and 400 Ecuadorian Hispanic respondents) collecting data on age, sex, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and selected knowledge, attitude, and belief variables in relation to smoking, alcohol, early detection, and cancer treatment related behaviors; 3. Analyze these data to assess whether the magnitude and significance of ethnic group differences in health attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, in relation to age, sex and SES, suggest different strategies for developing and evaluating cancer prevention and control interventions; and 4. Use the health and illness behavior data analysis models, to estimate the impact of intervention design changes for several cancer prevention and control interventions based in New York City multi-ethnic communities in order evaluate the extent to which cancer prevention and control intervention models must be tailored to successfully address the cancer prevention and control needs of different ethnic and SES groups.
| O'Malley, A S; Kerner, J F; Johnson, L (1999) Are we getting the message out to all? Health information sources and ethnicity. Am J Prev Med 17:198-202 |
| O'Malley, A S; Kerner, J; Johnson, A E et al. (1999) Acculturation and breast cancer screening among Hispanic women in New York City. Am J Public Health 89:219-27 |
| Kerner, J F; Breen, N; Tefft, M C et al. (1998) Tobacco use among multi-ethnic Latino populations. Ethn Dis 8:167-83 |
| O'Malley, A S; Mandelblatt, J; Gold, K et al. (1997) Continuity of care and the use of breast and cervical cancer screening services in a multiethnic community. Arch Intern Med 157:1462-70 |
