MULTIMEDIA BREAST CANCER EDUCATION KIOSKS FOR LATINAS

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DESCRIPTION: Breast cancer is a significant public health problem for Hispanic women (Latinas). Despite lower incidence rates than non-Latina white women, breast cancer has increased three times faster among Latinas. They experience less early-stage detection, have significantly more advanced disease on admission, and lower survival rates. Thus cancer screening and risk reduction education is of strategic importance, but delivering these messages to low-income, low literacy, and non-English speaking women presents unique challenges. Interactive multimedia technologies may offer an innovative, effective, and cost-accessible medium for reaching this population with breast cancer screening and risk-reduction education. This project assesses the feasibility of developing an interactive, multimedia, bilingual kiosk that employs touchscreen and CD-ROM technologies. Its design will optimize the visual, audio, and interactive features inherent in this medium into a device that is not intimidating to these women, and enables them to navigate easily and control the pace and path of the presentation. The technology itself will be transparent so that it neither constrains nor intimidates the user. Unlike a desktop application of CD-ROMs, a touchscreen kiosk requires neither computer nor keyboard literacy, yet possesses all the interactive, multimedia capabilities of CD-ROM technology. The specific objectives of this present research are to: 1) identify levels of awareness and knowledge about breast cancer of low-income, low-literacy Latinas, their attitudes and beliefs about breast cancer, and their behaviors that either reduce or increase their breast cancer risk profile; 2) develop and validate the content elements and formats of cancer prevention and screening messages that are culturally acceptable to the intended audiences; 3) produce and test prototype modules for a multimedia presentation to determine their acceptability, and identify needed modifications to improve their effectiveness; and 4) develop an interactive multimedia strategy that provides bilingual and culturally sensitive breast cancer screening guidelines and risk-reduction information to Latinas over age 20.