Evaluation of a navigator program for cancer screening of women in korean communities

The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a culturally acceptable navigator program for female community leaders to improve the cancer screening rates of Korean women. The study was designed to improve knowledge, self efficacy and communication skills for breast and cervical cancer screening, monitor navigator's activities and evaluate change of knowledge, motivation, behavioral skills of a selected community population. A total of 30 women aged from 40-69 who were educated in a 12 hour navigator program, and 210 of a 1,200 community members in contact with cancer screening navigators were surveyed for evaluation of effectiveness of the navigator program. Contents of program were causes of cancer, benefit of breast cancer early detection, benefit of cervical cancer early detection, health care service for cancer screening, role of cancer early detection navigators, communication skills, trans-theoretical modeling and role play. Cancer screening was significantly related to the change of knowledge by cancer screening navigator (OR=3.02, p<0.01), and changed skills for taking screening (OR=2.46, p< 0.05). This study showed that the navigator program could be applied effectively to communities in Korea, contributing to improvement of screening rates through community capacity building.