Use of Community Forums to Increase HPV and Cervical Cancer Knowledge in Diverse Communities
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-15-2019
Abstract
Cervical cancer adversely impacts African American communities. While disparities in incidence remain unclear, communities continue to use forums to increase cervical cancer education. The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of using community forums to increase human papillomavirus vaccine (HPVV) and cervical cancer knowledge in African American communities. This study is a one-group pretest–posttest study design using a 17-item questionnaire to collect data from 412 participants in diverse communities. Our analyses revealed perceived knowledge increased significantly after the forums for African American participants. For African Americans, perceived knowledge prior to the forums was explained by gender, access to care, and trust in clinical trials. After the forum, perceived knowledge was associated with access to care and trust in vaccines. Participants who had health insurance reported higher perceived HPV and cervical cancer knowledge and greater trust in vaccines. This study found community forums that address the cultural and historical context of research mistreatment related to HPVV development and include diverse racial/ethnic representation of stakeholders may be a useful strategy to increase HPVV, and cervical cancer knowledge in African American communities.
Recommended Citation
Teteh, D.K., Dawkins-Moultin, L., Robinson, C. et al. Use of community forums to increase knowledge of HPV and cervical cancer in African American communities. J Community Health 44, 492–499 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-019-00665-2
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
Springer
Comments
This article was originally published in Journal of Community Health, volume 44, in 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-019-00665-2
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