The Characteristics of Effective Cancer Education Media Interventions among African Americans: A Systematic Review

Cancer incidence and mortality is a significant area of health disparity between African Americans and Caucasians. In the current article the authors used a systematic review design to examine the characteristics of different cancer media education intervention (CMEI) to increase access to cancer screenings for African Americans within a 30 year period (1980-2010). Ten computerized databases were searched using inclusion-exclusion criteria. Consequently, 179 potential studies were identified, and later reduced to 41 eligible studies through the inclusion-exclusion criteria. The eligible studies had a combined sample size of N = 12,764 respondents. The findings revealed that multi-media intervention strategies were the most common media intervention that led to increased cancer screenings among African Americans. The authors conclude with a call for social workers to be more involved in developing and following up with culturally appropriate media strategies that can increase the likelihood of early detection and successful treatment, thus reducing this important area of health disparity.