LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS IMPLEMENT A THEORY-BASED MODEL TO INCREASE BREAST AND CERVICAL-CANCER SCREENING

Su Salud/Your Life, Your Health is a community program to increase par ticipation in breast and cervical cancer screening. This program illus trates the diffusion of an innovative outreach strategy from a researc h environment to two local health departments. The program uses A Su S alud, the communication model in which positive role models are featur ed in the media, and community volunteers who give positive social rei nforcement. Local health departments in Galveston and Corpus Christi, TX, were selected to implement the model because of excessive mortalit y rates in the region and the departments' adequate level of resources and commitment. Over an 18-month period, 54 stories of role models ap peared in the media in Corpus Christi, and 60 appeared in Galveston. T here were 490 volunteers active in Corpus Christi and 279 in Galveston . Of 365 inquiries to the Corpus Christi program, 35 percent were from the Mexican American target group of women ages 40-70. Of 1,457 women who contacted the Galveston program, 9 percent were from the African American target group ages 40-70. Local health departments are well-su ited to participation in cancer control research applications because they have direct access to high-risk populations and have the authorit y to institutionalize effective interventions.