Southeast Asian Women's Health Project

Cancer is the leading cause of death for Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant (R/I) women; yet they have unacceptably low screening rates. Drawing on successful tailored navigation interventions, the purpose of this study is to compare a culturally congruent, tailored navigation intervention delivered by bilingual and bicultural Community Health Advisors (CHAs) to increase age-appropriate breast and cervical cancer screening completion among intergenerational Southeast Asian R/I women (mother-daughter dyads) with information and reminder only. We will examine the underlying factors that associate with the intervention that influence cancer screening completion. We will also explore the influence of intergenerational exchange of breast and cervical cancer screening information between mothers and daughters. This multi-faceted intervention, combining culturally tailored messages and navigation via CHAs, has high potential for scalability across settings and diseases for hard-to-reach populations. In addition, this study focuses on breast and cervical cancer screening jointly potentially increasing the public health impact.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cervical Cancer; Breast Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Navigation; Other: Information only

Detailed Description

Cancer is the leading cause of death for Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant women. Cambodian, Lao, and Vietnamese (hereafter referred to as SEAR/I) women have disproportionately high incidence rates of breast and cervical cancers. Breast cancer incidence increased significantly for all Asians from 1988 to 2013, but the largest increase was in SEAR/I women (APC=2.5, 95% CI 0.8, 4.2). Over the past two decades, SEAR/I women experienced significant increases in breast cancer incidence across age groups compared to other Asian and White women. Lao and Cambodian women are 2.5 times and Vietnamese women are 40% more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer than are White women. Despite evidence that regular screening through mammography and Pap testing reduces breast and cervical cancer mortality, SEAR/I women continue to have strikingly low rates of screening (75.4% for Pap tests and 64.1% for mammography), well below the Healthy People 2020 target of 93% and 81.1%, respectively. Drawing on successful tailored navigation interventions, the purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a culturally-relevant, tailored navigation intervention delivered through bilingual and bicultural Community Health Advisors (CHAs) for intergenerational SEAR/I women (mother-daughter dyads). Ethnically matched CHAs will use the tested Tailored Intervention Messaging System (TIMS©) to educate and navigate participants from the community to health clinic to complete mammography and/or Pap testing.

Our specific aims are to:

AIM 1: Test the efficacy of tailored navigation intervention delivered by SEA community health advisors (CHA+TN) to increase age-appropriate breast and cervical cancer screening completion compared to an information and reminder only control among intergenerational SEAR/I dyads.

H1: The intervention group (CHA+TN) will have significantly higher age-appropriate breast and cervical cancer screening rates compared with the control group (information + reminder only).

AIM 2: Examine the underlying mechanisms (both mediating and moderating factors) associated with the intervention (CHA+TN) that influence breast and cervical cancer screening completion.

Exploratory AIM 3: Explore in greater detail the influence of intergenerational exchange of information between mothers and daughters related to breast and cervical cancer screening.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 194
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43210
      • The Ohio State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Live in Ohio
• Self-identify as Filipino, Cambodian, Lao, or Vietnamese
• Aged 21 years and older
• Non-adherent for mammogram, Pap test, or both
• Have a mother or daughter aged 21 years and older.
• If potential participants do not have a mother or daughter, then they would have to have an immediate female family member, such as an aunt, niece, or grandmother aged 21 years and older who could also be recruited into the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Women who have been previously diagnosed with breast and/or cervical cancer.
• Siblings such as a sister will not be considered eligible unless they are from different generations.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group (Navigation); Participants will be contacted by CHAs by phone one week after giving informed consent and completion of the baseline survey. CHAs will contact participants once a week for up to 10 weeks (a maximum of 10 attempts or until a clinic appointment is made, whichever comes first). Using the TIMS© message library, the CHAs will engage participants in conversations about breast and cervical cancer screening and navigate the participants to overcome any barriers to screening and motivate them to make a clinic appointment. Personal messages from mothers to daughters and vice versa and screening reminder notecards will be sent at 12-months (T3). At 18-months (T4), CHAs will follow-up with navigation group participants who reported completing a mammogram during the navigation process. Screening completion will be measured by self-report and confirmed via medical record check.	Behavioral: Navigation; Weekly phone-calls, personal messages, and American Cancer Society Pap test and mammography test reminder post card
Placebo Comparator: Control Group (Information only); Participants will be mailed an informational brochure on mammography and Pap testing one week after enrollment into the study. At 3-months post enrollment, CHAs will conduct a follow-up phone call with each participant to assess mammogram and/or Pap testing completion (primary outcomes). At 12-months (T3) post enrollment, CHAs will contact all control group participants by phone to confirm a scheduled appointment or screening completion. For those who completed a mammogram within the 12 months since enrollment, generic screening reminder notecards will be sent by mail. At 18-months (T4), CHAs will follow-up with those control group participants who reported scheduling a mammogram, Pap smear, or both at the 12-month (T3) time point.	Other: Information only; American Cancer Society breast and cervical cancer screening information and Pap test and mammography test reminder post card

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Mammogram test completion	Screening completion measured by self-report	18 months
Pap test completion	Screening completion measured by self-report	18months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ohio State University
• Collaborators: University of South Florida; American Cancer Society, Inc.
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jennifer Kue, PhD, University of South Florida; Principal Investigator: Judith Tate, PhD, RN, Ohio State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 16, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 30, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): August 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 10, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 10, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): September 12, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 15, 2025
• Last Verified: January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Urogenital Diseases; Genital Diseases; Urogenital Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Female Urogenital Diseases; Female Urogenital Diseases and Pregnancy Complications; Uterine Diseases; Genital Diseases, Female; Genital Neoplasms, Female; Uterine Cervical Diseases; Uterine Neoplasms; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2018B0521

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

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