As trusted members of their communities, community health workers (CHWs) have the potential to link hard-to-reach underserved populations with appropriate health care. As part of a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded initiative, we are examining the effectiveness of CHWs at increasing cervical cancer screening among minority women. CHWs are placed at one of three federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)/FHQC-look alike and obtain additional input from project specific Community Advisory Boards (CABs) in each community. Using a mixed methods approach consisting of quantitative recruitment data as well as key informant interviews we have identified several barriers and enablers for outreach, recruitment and retention of participants in our project. CHW characteristics facilitating study participant recruitment and retention include: personality, prior field experience, language, cultural congruence, degree of familiarity with community, ability to connect with their CAB members and degree of interaction with existing resources at their respective FQHCs (programmatic, structural, environmental and personnel). Ongoing CWH training and quality control were also important enablers of achieving our recruitment targets. Study participant characteristics such as cultural norms/beliefs, immigration status, health insurance, and economic factors (ability to meet clinic co-payments) were frequently cited as barriers. Structural/organizational characteristics of each FQHCs such as how health services are delivered, paperwork requirements, accessibility of location and tight linkages with local health departments also served as enablers and/or barriers. Lessons learned from our CHW led cervical cancer screening study can be applied to many distinct community based programs aimed at improving health care in underserved communities.

Note: This abstract was withdrawn after the Proceedings was printed and was not presented at the conference.

Citation Format: Brendaly Rodriguez, Shelia McCann, Olveen Carrasquillo, Erin Kobetz, Anthony Amofah, Tulay Koru-Sengul. Barriers faced and enablers used by community health workers in 3 underserved communities on cervical cancer screening among Haitian, Hispanic, and African American women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A35. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A35

©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.
2014