Evaluation of the Avon Foundation community education and outreach initiative Community Patient Navigation Program

Black women in the United States experience disproportionate breast cancer mortality. Culturally appropriate community education on the importance of breast health coupled with the availability of free or low-cost mammography screening services may help improve the use of mammography screening services among Black women. The Avon Foundation Community Patient Navigation Program seeks to fill this need. The current study presents a process and outcome evaluation of this program.

Trained and uniformed community patient navigators (PNs) host breast health education events where they recruit community members to complete a mammography interest form. Participants are referred to a nurse practitioner who determines eligibility for a free or low-cost mammogram. The community PN delivers telephone follow-up to encourage participants to make and keep their mammogram appointments.

Over a 15-month period, 22 community PNs hosted 207 breast health events, which included 9,601 attendees. Three hundred and four participants completed a mammography interest form, and 21% of these individuals received mammograms at the collaborating health facility. Participants who reported breast symptoms were twice as likely to get a mammogram as those who did not report symptoms.

Community patient navigation may be a useful resource for encouraging mammography screening among underserved women.