Tailored, interactive soap operas for breast cancer education of high-riskHispanic women

Background. While Hispanic women have lower rates of breast cancer than do women of other ethnic groups, they are the least likely to undergo screenin g examinations, This study evaluated a culturally sensitive and linguistica lly appropriate, tailored, computer-based, educational program for early de tection of breast cancer aimed at high-risk Hispanic women Methods. Spanish -speaking Hispanic women from an inner-city community health clinic were re cruited and randomly assigned either to a computer intervention with an int eractive soap-opera format (n = 118) or to a comparison group (n = 60). Pre - and posttests were used to identify any change in breast-cancer-related k nowledge and beliefs. Results. Both younger (18-40 years old) and older (41 -65 years old) women in the intervention group demonstrated significant inc reases in their breast cancer screening knowledge and beliefs as compared w ith the younger and older women in the comparison group (n < 0.05). Conclus ions. Computer-based tailored and interactive soap operas that are linguist ically and culturally appropriate are effective in increasing breast cancer screening knowledge and beliefs among underserved Spanish-speaking Hispani c women.