Risk Communication Within Mexican-American Families

May 7, 2024 updated by: National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

The Role of Family History and Culture in Communal Coping Within Mexican American Families

This study will examine what methods work best for encouraging Mexican-American family members to talk about their risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer. Within the Mexican-American community, the family culture provides an important setting in which individuals interpret and share their health information and formulate strategies to engage in health-promoting behaviors. The information from the study will be used to design risk communication approaches for Mexican-American households.

Members of households with at least three adults 18 to 70 years of age who are part of the existing Mexican-American households recruited by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center may be eligible for this study.

Participants are interviewed about their medical history, family history of disease, health behaviors, beliefs about disease and disease risk, experiences living in the United States, and relationships with family members and close friends. They are then provided information about their family risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer, based on the information they provided in the interview. Two additional interviews are conducted over the telephone that include questions about how the participants communicate with family members about their risk and health behaviors.

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Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The current project aims to understand the mechanisms underlying communications about familial risk for common, complex diseases and the development of strategies by Mexican American families to address this risk. For the Mexican American community, the family culture provides an important setting within which individuals will interpret their health information, share health information, and formulate strategies to engage in health promoting behaviors. This family culture can be defined by the family social structure, the degree of acculturation represented by household members, as well as socio-economic factors. Participants for the current project will be recruited from an ongoing population-based cohort of Mexican American households initiated by the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC). At least three adults, two of which are biological relatives, living within the same residence from 160 multigenerational Mexican American households will participate in this study. Medical risk information (feedback) will be provided to participants based upon family history information that they provide about four complex diseases: diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer. The feedback will be randomized in two ways varying who within the family is provided the feedback (Receiver of the Feedback) and what information is provided (Content of Feedback). The data will allow us to examine whether the family-centered feedback approach (where all participating family members receive feedback), rather than the individual-focused feedback approach (where only one participating family member receives feedback), encourages communications regarding disease risk among family members. The medical risk feedback will also be randomized as to whether they receive disease risk information only (predisposing risk feedback) or disease risk information coupled with personalized recommendations for behavior change to reduce risks (predisposing plus enabling feedback). These data will allow us to examine the impact of the content of risk feedback based on the CDC s family health history tool Family Healthware on beliefs concerning the underlying causes and controllability of common diseases. Cross comparisons between the data obtained from who receives the medical risk information and the content of that information will help in understanding the role of beliefs about disease and communication about family risk for disease in the development of shared perceptions of risk and strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors within the family. The role of the familial and cultural context in the communication and strategy development process will also be investigated.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

498

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030-4096
        • MD Anderson Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Mexican-American households@@@

Description

  • INCLUSION CRITERIA
  • Member household of existing population-based cohort of Mexican-American households recruited by the Department of Epidemiology at UTMDACC. The existing population based cohort consists of self-identified Mexican-Americans living in predominantly Mexican-American neighborhoods in the Houston area. All individuals in the cohort are 18 years of age or older and had to be able to complete a personal interview.
  • Household includes at least three adults (18 to 70 years of age) who are willing to participate in the study, where at least two of the household participants are related biologically and represent differing generations, and additionally in which one household participant is a spouse or partner of another household participant.
  • Ability for each participating household member to complete one in-home survey instrument via computerized assessment tool or personal interview and to complete two telephone interviews.
  • Ability of all household participants to speak either English or Spanish.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA

More than two household members are unable to complete the baseline questionnaire using a computerized assessment tool.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Cohort
  • Time Perspectives: Retrospective

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
cohort of Mexican-American households
Behavioral: Family Health History

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Understand how culture and the familial social system facilitate or impede communications regarding family health history and risk for disease, and the development of strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors.
Time Frame: one survey and two telephone interviews
Understand how culture and the familial social system facilitate or impede communications regarding family health history and risk for disease, and the development of strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors.
one survey and two telephone interviews
Investigate whether the type of personalized risk feedback (predisposing or predisposing plus enabling) affects family members beliefs about the causes and controllability of disease onset and perceived risk for disease.
Time Frame: one survey and two telephone interviews
Investigate whether the type of personalized risk feedback (predisposing or predisposing plus enabling) affects family members beliefs about the causes and controllability of disease onset and perceived risk for disease.
one survey and two telephone interviews
Investigate whether shared perceptions of risk and beliefs about disease mediates the relationship between communications about family risk and the development of cooperative strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors within the family.
Time Frame: one survey and two telephone interviews
Investigate whether shared perceptions of risk and beliefs about disease mediates the relationship between communications about family risk and the development of cooperative strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors within the family.
one survey and two telephone interviews
Examine whether a family-centered feedback approach, as compared to an individual-focused approach, encourages communications regarding family risk and the development of strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors within the household.
Time Frame: one survey and two telephone interviews
Examine whether a family-centered feedback approach, as compared to an individual-focused approach, encourages communications regarding family risk and the development of strategies to adopt health promoting behaviors within the household.
one survey and two telephone interviews

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Laura M. Koehly, Ph.D., National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 27, 2007

Primary Completion

December 7, 2022

Study Completion

December 7, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 3, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 3, 2007

First Posted (Estimated)

May 4, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

May 8, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2024

Last Verified

February 22, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 999907140
  • 07-HG-N140

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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