Community Health Advisors Improve Women's Use of Mammography

Behind the Cancer Headlines®

September 8, 2006

A new study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that the use of lay health advisors – individuals in a community trained to inform other community members about good health practices – can increase the number of low-income women who get a mammogram.

Electra D. Paskett, Ph.D., at the Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues randomly assigned 851 low-income women in Robeson County, NC, who hadn’t received a mammogram in the past year to speak with a lay health advisor or receive no intervention. They assessed the rates of mammography use 12-14 months later.

The authors found that 42.5% of the women who had spoken with a lay health advisor received a mammogram versus 27.3% of controls.

SOURCE:

Journal of the National Cancer Institute, September 6, 2006