An analysis of resources for Indigenous women in NSW about cervical screening

OBJECTIVE: To examine resources about cervical screening made available to Indigenous women in NSW. METHOD: An Aboriginal woman. on behalf of another Aboriginal woman, telepho ned 47 NSW based organisations in May 1998 for information about cervical s creening. Received materials were analysed for format, content and readabil ity and then submitted to a panel of Indigenous women for their feedback. RESULTS: Of those 34 organisations agreeing to send resources, only 20 (59% ) did so. After removing duplicates, 12 cervical screening resources were a vailable for review of which six were designed and printed in NSW and the o ther six originated outside NSW. Of the six resources developed in NSW, two (33%) were for Aboriginal women. Of the six resources originating from out side of NSW, another two (33%) also were for Aboriginal women. The Flesch r eadability scores for resources ranged from 58.6 to 87.27. Those developed in NSW had a significantly lower readability score than those from outside of NSW (p = 0.025). Despite lower education levels among the target group, there was no difference in the readability scores of resources designed for Indigenous women (p=1). CONCLUSIONS: Most resources obtained by us were not tailored for Indigenous women. IMPLICATIONS: This study has set a base line for resources available for In digenous women. Our method could be replicated in the future to evaluate an d monitor improvement.