A multimedia breast cancer education intervention for low-income Latinas

This paper discusses the results from the field test of a multimedia health education intervention, designed to provide breast cancer education for low income Latinas. The purpose of the field test was to ascertain whether the intervention produced significant changes in breast cancer knowledge and attitude, and screening intentions. A total of 1,197 Latina women participated in the field study at six different sites. The majority of the participants were under 65 years of age, foreign-born with less than eight years of education and a weekly household income that fell in the lowest income quintile for 1998 (<$350.00). Participants were randomly assigned to a control or intervention condition. The control group was interviewed about their breast cancer knowledge, attitude and mammography intentions prior to exposure to the intervention, and served as the baseline group. Women in the intervention group exhibited higher knowledge scores than the pretest group (Chi sq., p < .0001). Never-screened women exhibited the largest differences in knowledge scores relative to the baseline sample. The intervention also increased the likelihood of women seeking information about a mammogram.