Tailored, interactive soap operas for breast cancer education of high-risk Hispanic women

While Hispanic women have lower rates of breast cancer than do women of other ethnic groups, they are the least likely to undergo screening examinations. This study evaluated a culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate, tailored, computer-based, educational program for early detection of breast cancer aimed at high-risk Hispanic women.

Spanish-speaking Hispanic women from an inner-city community health clinic were recruited and randomly assigned either to a computer intervention with an interactive soap-opera format (n = 118) or to a comparison group (n = 60). Pre- and posttests were used to identify any change in breast-cancer-related knowledge and beliefs.

Both younger (18-40 years old) and older (41-65 years old) women in the intervention group demonstrated significant increases in their breast cancer screening knowledge and beliefs as compared with the younger and older women in the comparison group (n < 0.05).

Computer-based tailored and interactive soap operas that are linguistically and culturally appropriate are effective in increasing breast cancer screening knowledge and beliefs among underserved Spanish-speaking Hispanic women.