Community-based interventions built on a strong theoretical framework are relatively rare in oral health disparity research. It is assumed that community-based research should engage the community but less frequently is it expected that the interventions are designed to expose and test the mechanisms through which behavior changes. A first step in such a paradigm is a thorough understanding of the target behavior and the associated physical and social environment and the interaction thereof. This presentation will discuss the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Elaboration Likelihood Model to design and test community-based interventions aimed at changing behavior associated with late stage diagnosis of head and neck cancer. Consideration will be given to elucidating the pathways through which behavior change occurs.

Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(12 Suppl):CN14-02.