Using peer volunteers to promote mammography education in senior citizens' housing facilities

A peer volunteer intervention to encourage attendance at mammography education programs was developed and evaluated as part of a multi-intervention study to improve mammography by women 65 years and older. Approximately five to seven women from each of 20 racially and socioeconomically diverse senior citizens' housing facilities were recruited. After completing a training session, they distributed invitations and spoke personally with fellow residents about attending the upcoming program. Attendance rates for facilities with the peer volunteer program were compared with those in facilities without the volunteers. Results of a logistic regression analysis found the volunteer program, in addition to facility size, to have had a statistically significant effect on attendance at the mammography education presentations.