Design of a Community-Based Lung Cancer Education, Prevention, and Screening Program

• Published in: Western journal of nursing research Vol. 41; no. 8; pp. 1152 - 1169
• Main Authors: Williams, Lovoria B., McCall, Amber, Joshua, Thomas V., Looney, Stephen W., Tingen, Martha S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-08-2019; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Awareness; Community Health Workers; Dissemination; Early Detection of Cancer; Ethnic groups; Female; Health belief model; Health beliefs; Health Education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; High risk; Humans; Intervention; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - prevention & control; Male; Mass Screening; Medical screening; Middle Aged; Minority groups; Nicotine; Prevention programs; Smoking Cessation; Socioeconomic status; Tobacco; Tomography; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Uptake; tobacco use cessation; early detection of cancer; lung neoplasm; community health workers; ethnic groups
• ISSN: 0193-9459; 1552-8456
• DOI: 10.1177/0193945919827261

Uptake of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for lung cancer screening is extremely low. Efforts to promote screening are warranted, especially among disparate groups such as racial/ethnic minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. This article describes the design and implementation strategies of the ongoing cancer-Community Awareness Access Research and Education (c-CARE) program. The purpose of c-CARE is to increase community awareness of lung cancer screening through education. Community health workers were trained to implement the intervention in 12 community sites. The Health Belief Model guided the evaluation and intervention development methods. Aims include changing participants’ knowledge, attitude, and beliefs related to lung cancer and increasing lung cancer early detection and prevention behaviors by identifying and connecting high-risk and/or nicotine-dependent individuals to LDCT screening and/or tobacco cessation services. If effective, these methods could model increased dissemination to other high-risk communities.