Women with breast cancer require immediate and continuing education and support as an integral part of their oncology treatment. Spanish-speaking Hispanic women experience particularly high levels of psychosocial distress, partially as a result of increased isolation due to culture, language, education, poverty, and immigration status. While some cancer educational resources have been linguistically translated into Spanish, these are only accessible to those who read, which is the case for less than half the immigrant Hispanic population in the US. Even for those who do read, the linguistic translations frequently fall short of accurately conveying the meaning of this cancer information in a culturally understandable way. In this Phase I SBIR, we propose to develop an interactive, culturally and linguistically appropriate, CD-ROM for coping with breast cancer. The program will be adapted in part from an NCI-funded SBIR CD-ROM, """"""""Living With Breast Cancer."""""""" The presentation style and format will be changed to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking women who live in rural communities and who have, at most, a 3rd grade education. In particular, information will be presented only in oral format, either in narration or as conversations between women about their experiences with breast cancer, about their struggles to find medical care and support, and about the ways they coped with the disease. Conversations will then lead into particular content and skill areas. Content and stories will be derived from personal interviews and focus groups. The program will be filled with pictures and stories from Latinas in the US who have breast cancer. The navigation will be simple and intuitive, using only a touch screen or a mouse. Since these women are unlikely to have a home computer, computers will be installed in community sites and public health clinics, where support and outreach staff can demonstrate the program and encourage women to use it. The product will be tested in a sample of 30 Spanish-speaking Latinas with breast cancer receiving care at a public health clinic in Woodburn, OR. Commercial applications for this product would be for public health clinics, HMO' s, and other providers, who could then make the program available to their patients either for sale or as part of their education and outreach services.
