The proposed study is a health education research project focusing on cancer prevention among two populations of Native Americans, the Cherokee and the Lumbee. The Cherokee reservation is located in parts of five rural counties in western North Carolina. The Lumbee are integrated into the population of Robeson County, in the southeastern area of North Carolina. The major goal of the study is to increase screening and follow-up for cervical cancer prevention among women, age 18 and older, who are members of the Cherokee and Lumbee tribes. The goal of the project is to be reached through development and implementation of a targeted health education program. The program will use the expertise developed in planning and implementation of the Forsyth County Cervical Cancer Prevention Project, a community-based heath education project directed toward black women in Forsyth County, North Carolina. As in the Forsyth County Project, the emphasis in the proposed project will be on maximizing the cultural sensitivity of educational materials and methods through use of a carefully planned process of development. Evaluation will be carried out using a Solomon Four-Group design. Data will be collected by face-to-face interviews at two points in time. The intervention will be introduced to two groups of 250 women in each target area, and the remaining groups will serve as controls. To validate the interview data, Pap smear records from processing laboratories will be reviewed and results matched with women included in the intervention groups.
