Kieuly Dang, MPH¹, Hiep T. Doan, MD², Thoa Nguyen³, Ky Q. Lai, MD, MPH¹, Ching Wong¹, Jeremiah Mock, MSc, PhD³, Stephen J. McPhee, MD⁴, Tung T. Nguyen, MD⁵, and Hy Lam¹. (1) Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, University of California, San Francisco, 44 Page St, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, (2) Northern California Cancer Center, Vietnamese Colon Health Project, 32960 Alvarado-Niles Rd., Ste. 600, Union City, CA 94587, (3) Division of General Internal Medicine, Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, University of California, San Francisco, 44 Page St, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-476-0557, thoa@itsa.ucsf.edu, (4) Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 44 Page Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102, (5) Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 400 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0320, San Francisco, CA 94143

The Lay Health Worker (LHW) program is one component of a 6-component intervention project entitled “REACHing Vietnamese Women: A Community Model for Cervical Cancer Screening.” Funded by the CDC, the REACH project’s objective is to increase cervical screening rates among Vietnamese-American women, a high-risk population in Santa Clara County, California. We worked with a coalition of Vietnamese-American community-based organizations (CBOs) in Santa Clara County to design and implement a LHW intervention program for Vietnamese-American women. Over 4 years, we recruited 5 CBOs to implement the LHW intervention program, and trained 50 LHWs to recruit and educate approximately 1,000 women about cervical cancer and Pap tests. Each of the 5 CBOs recruited 10 LHWs, each of whom, in turn, recruited 20 women from their social networks. Participating women were randomized into intervention group (n=500) and control (delayed intervention) group (n=500). LHWs organized small group discussions and used culturally tailored materials to raise participants’ awareness about cervical cancer and Pap tests. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Data analyses suggest that LHWs played a vital role in information dissemination and could be agents for successful behavior change.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, participants will (
• understand how to design of a Lay Health Worker (LHW) intervention program, (
• assess the success of LHW program activities in community-based organizations by analyzing data from pre- and post-intervention surveys of participants, and (
• understand community-based research issues related to conducting such an intervention.

Keywords: Lay Health Workers, Cancer Prevention

Related Web page: www.healthisgold.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project, University of California, San Francisco
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.