Culturally-Relevant Online Education Improves Health Workers' Capacity and Intent to Address Cancer

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Indigenous Health
• Health Education

Background:

• Rural Alaska faces challenges in accessing timely, medically accurate cancer education.
• Community Health Aides/Practitioners (CHA/Ps) are vital in delivering health services in remote Alaskan communities.
• There was a need to enhance the capacity of CHA/Ps to provide cancer education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, implement, and evaluate culturally-relevant online cancer education modules for Alaska's CHA/Ps.
• To assess the impact of these modules on CHA/Ps' knowledge, confidence, and intent to share cancer information.
• To support CHA/Ps in promoting cancer screenings and healthy lifestyle choices.

Main Methods:

• Development of ten online, culturally-relevant cancer education modules using Community-Based Participatory Action Research principles.
• Implementation and evaluation of modules with 79 CHA/Ps in Alaska over one year (August 2016-July 2017).
• Administration of end-of-module evaluation surveys to assess changes in intent to share cancer information.

Main Results:

• 459 surveys were completed by 79 CHA/Ps.
• CHA/Ps reported increased knowledge, comfort, confidence, and preparedness to discuss cancer.
• All learners intended to increase discussions with patients about cancer screenings and lifestyle factors.

Conclusions:

• Collaboratively developed, culturally-relevant online modules effectively increased CHA/P capacity for cancer health promotion.
• The intervention supported CHA/Ps' intent to engage patients in crucial cancer prevention and screening conversations.
• This approach demonstrates a successful model for delivering specialized health education in underserved rural areas.