New Approach For Educating Hispanic Women About Breast Cancer

A Spanish-language soap opera combined with an interactive computer program is being tested as a new way to educate low-income Hispanic women about breast cancer.

The program requires viewers watching a soap opera-like story on a computer monitor to select "yes" or "no" buttons when a character ponders whether to see her physician for a clinical breast exam and have a mammogram. The story's ending is affected by the viewer's decisions.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine want to know whether this approach is more effective with low-income Hispanic women than are traditional methods like lecturing and handing out printed materials. The study is being conducted at Casa de Amigos, a community health center of the Harris County Hospital District.

"Many of the women we're trying to educate about breast cancer don't read, but they can listen to and watch our story just like a TV program," says Dr. Maria Jibaja, principal investigator for the study and a Baylor assistant professor of family and community medicine. "They can't watch it passively, however, because they have to interact with the program."

The story centers around two Hispanic sisters in their 40s and 50s. The startling news that a friend has breast cancer prompts them to wonder whether they should see a physician for a checkup. If the viewer selects "yes" when asked if one of the characters should visit her doctor and have a mammogram, the story has a happy ending. If the response is "no," that character does not show up at a party in the final scene because she is not feeling well.

"The program is designed to reinforce wise health care decisions and encourage women to be screened for breast cancer," Jibaja says. "If the viewer does not like the final outcome of the story, the program allows her to go back and change the decisions she made earlier."

The program also gives viewers the option of stopping the story momentarily to watch short educational lessons, such as a video from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation on how to conduct a breast self-exam.

Because many low-income Hispanic women have never used a computer, the program shows dialogue printed in comic-strip-like balloons over the characters' heads - just like photo novellas that are popular among the Hispanic culture. "We want the women to feel comfortable using the program and not be intimidated by the technology," Jibaja says.

She is comparing changes in pre-test and post-test scores of 120 women who viewed the computer program with those of 60 women who attended a lecture about breast cancer at Casa de Amigos. The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute, is being conducted in two age groups: 18-39 and 40-64.

Minority and low-income women are more likely to die from breast cancer, possibly because they don't use regular methods of early detection, says Baylor's Dr. Nancy Neff, medical director for the project.

- B. J. ALMOND

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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