Receptivity of a worksite breast cancer screening education program

A breast cancer screening education program was offered to 97 major worksit es in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Worksites could design a program by c hoosing components that consisted of (1) brochures, (2) breast cancer educa tion classes taught by program staff or (3) sending company nurses to be tr ained by program staff to then teach employees at the worksite. A total of 63 out of the original 97 companies (65%) accepted and offered a program to their employees. Worksites that chose to sponsor a program were more likel y to have already sponsored breast cancer education programs at their works ites (P = 0.027) or to have a medical department (P = 0.006), The type of c omponent selected was significantly associated with a history of sponsoring other health education programs (P < 0.001). Fourteen worksites chose the more intensive component, the training of a company nurse. More than half o f the worksites that had never sponsored and had no plans to sponsor worksi te breast education programs were receptive to our program (43 of 73, 59%), The majority of these sites (67%) chose the brochure. These results indica te that worksites are receptive to offering breast cancer educational progr ams if varying types of components can be selected.