The role of needs assessment in designing a community-based mammography education program for urban women

Abstract

This paper describes the conceptualization, implementation and evaluation framework of a community-wide education program developed to increase the use of screening mammography. Survey results from women in three communities in the Greater Los Angeles Area were used to identify baseline information on knowledge, beliefs and practices regarding screening mammography. This needs assessment indicated significant differences in the rate of mammography screening by race, preferred language, community, age, education, income and predisposing attitudes and perceptions. For instance, Spanish-speaking women were much less likely to have heard about breast cancer in the past 12 months compared with their English-speaking counterparts. Hispanic women were also half as likely as White women to ever have a mammo-gram. The intervention activities being implemented in this education program respond to the various findings. A quasi-experimental design consisting of two treatment communities and one control community is used to evaluate the effects of the program. Formative evaluation methods are used as well. The details of the community interventions and the implications for health education practice are discussed.