Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Screening

This California Medical Association Foundation / Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations project will raise public and provider awareness that racial / ethnic disparities persist in cancer screening in Asians, Latinos, Pacific Islanders and American Indians.

• An advertising campaign will be launched, tapping into New \ California Media’s groundbreaking social marketing work with the ethnic media.
• Culturally appropriate, in-language health education materials will be developed and widely-disseminated, utilizing the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations, the National Cancer Institute’s cancer expertise, and L.A. Care Health Plan’s Cultural and Linguistic Services Department’s capabilities.

The project has the potential both to directly impact the cancer rates of California’s ethnic minorities and to build substantial relationships between the ethnic communities’ two most trusted health care information sources: physicians and the media.

On January 15, 2004, UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research released Cancer Screening in California: Findings from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). The report examined cancer screening rates for breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers by race and ethnicity, income, usual source of care, English proficiency and California region. CHIS found that, even after controlling for level of income and type of health insurance, Asians reported lower rates of screening than whites for all four cancers and Latinos lower rates for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. The lowest screening rates reported by any race/ethnicity were those of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. American Indians and Alaska Natives were also less likely to be screened for breast or prostate cancer than whites.

Wide dissemination of these CHIS findings will:

• Raise the awareness of the Asian, Latino, Pacific Islander and American Indian communities throughout California of the effectiveness of cancer screenings and the need to get screened.
• Raise the awareness of the physicians of the lower screening rates and encourage them to recommend the appropriate cancer screenings for their patients.
• Foster relationships and build synergies between the ethnic physicians and the ethnic media, through their collaboration on this project.

Specific steps will be taken to raise public and provider awareness:

1. Increase the Ethnic Minority Communities’ Awareness Through the Media and Patient Education --

An advertising campaign targeting Latino, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Pacific Islander and American Indian audiences:

• Issuance of press releases.
• Conducting of two news briefings -- one Northern California and one Southern California – at which the CHIS findings will be presented to the ethnic media and ethnic physician leaders.
• Placement of culturally appropriate, in-language advertisements in targeted ethnic media outlets.

2. Increase the Physicians’ Awareness through the Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations –

The CMA Foundation has identified a number of physician organizations in the State, representing Asian and Latino physicians, including the California Latino Medical Association (CaLMA), nine organizations representing South Asians, five Chinese, three Vietnamese, two Filipino, one Korean and one Thai.

• Development and distribution of provider education materials to these physicians: reinforcing the effectiveness of cancer screening; addressing their questions and concerns about screening their patient populations; encouraging them to recommend screenings per the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines; and encouraging them to follow up with their patients to ensure that they have received the screenings.
• Development and placement of articles in the Ethnic Physician Organizations’ newsletters and mainstream medicine’s (e.g., the California Medical Association’s and the county medical societies’) publications.
• Presentation of the project at the October 2004 Summit of Ethnic Physician Organizations. The provider and the patient education materials will also be distributed.

This project is supported by a grant from The California Endowment. For additional information, please contact Ernie Tai, etai@cmanet.org , 916 551-2545.

Attached below is the press release that was distributed to the ethnic and mainstream media outlets: