The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #44882

Ruth C. Browne, ScD¹, Donna Davis-King, PhD², Soñia R Banks, PhD¹, Peter Homel, PhD³, Stacey M. Wright, MPH¹, Beverly Smith-Coll¹, Joseph Feldman, DrPH⁴, Tracey E. Wilson, PhD⁵, Marilyn Fraser-White, MD¹, Gwedolyn A. King, AAS¹, Marlene Price, MD⁴, and Edgar Mandeville, MD¹. (1) Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Inc., 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 1232, Brooklyn, NY 11203, (2) LifeTech, 4925 S. Verdun Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90043, (3) Continuum Services, Beth Israel Medical Center, 215 Park Avenue South, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10003, (4) State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 43, Brooklyn, NY 11203, (5) Preventive Medicine, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Box 1240, Brooklyn, NY 11203

The medically underserved Black woman bears the greatest breast cancer mortality burden in the United States. Soul Sense of Beauty^TM is a culturally tailored breast cancer control project in Brooklyn, New York. It utilizes voluntary urban hair salon stylists, an indigenous group of community confidants, to influence the breast health behavior of a defined population of U.S. born and foreign-born Black women. The project’s goal is to examine the efficacy of a training model for hair stylists to assist them in intervening on the breast health behaviors (practice of breast self examination, seeking clinical breast exams and mammography) of their clients. This presentation will include discussion of the needs assessment, project design, recruitment of stylists, curriculum development, live and video training techniques, and the activities of a local Health and Beauty Council. Participants will learn how this approach to breast cancer control (1) directly influences the cultural acceptability of screening, and (2) contributes to the clarity and acceptability of key breast cancer information delivery techniques for urban African-American and Afro-Caribbean women.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will learn how this approach to breast cancer control (
• directly influences the cultural acceptability of screening, and (
• contributes to the clarity and acceptability of key breast cancer information delivery techniques for urban African-American and Afro-Caribbean women.

Keywords: African American, Breast Cancer

Related Web page: www.arthurasheinstitute.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.