Increasing Liver Cancer Prevention Knowledge Through Community-Based Education Among Asian American Adults in Philadelphia
Kerry Traub, BA;1 Wenyue Lu, ML, PhD(c);1,2 Lin Zhu, PhD;1 Safa Ibrahim, BA;3 Ada Wong;4 Evelyn Gonzalez, MPH;5 Marilyn A Fraser, MD6; Yin Tan, MD, MPH;1 Grace Ma, PhD;1 Ming-Chin Yeh, PhD7
1Center for Asian health, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
2Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
3Department of Biological Sciences, and Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY
4NY-Presbyterian-Lower Manhattan Hospital, New York, NY
5Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
6Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, NY
7Nutrition Program, Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, NY
Background: Cancer rates as a whole are going down across the U.S., however liver cancer incidence is increasing, especially in Philadelphia. Approximately 70% of liver cancer cases are caused by hepatitis B and C virus (HBV and HCV). Notably, Asian Americans (AAs) are disproportionally affected by liver cancer, with a mortality rate that is 60% higher than that of Caucasians.
Methods: To increase awareness of liver cancer prevention and screening, we partnered with community-based organizations by co-developing and co-delivering a liver cancer prevention project in Philadelphia. We collected baseline evaluation data from the Asian American community members who participated in the educational workshops. This presentation will report the 152 eligible participants’ descriptives and knowledge on HBV, HCV, and liver cancer both before and after the intervention. Chi-square and t-test were used in data analysis.
Results: Slightly less than half of the participants rated their health condition as “good” and above (48.95%). With regard to liver cancer prevention awareness, less than one third of the participants ever heard about HBV (31.58%) and HCV (21.05%) from their doctors, and even less of them ever got HBV (21.71%) and HCV (2.63%) blood tests. The knowledge of the participants increased significantly from the pre-survey to the post-intervention survey (7.39 vs. 9.24, p<0.001).
Conclusions: The findings of our study showed that there is a crucial need for educational interventions to promote liver cancer prevention knowledge among Asian Americans, one of the groups suffering liver cancer disparity in the US.
Acknowledgement: This study reported in the abstract is funded, in part, by TUFCCC/HC Regional Comprehensive Cancer Health Disparity Partnership, Award Number U54 CA221704(5) (Contact PIs: Grace X. Ma, PhD and Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi, MD, PhD) from the National Cancer Institute and by NIH/NIGMS award # 1SC3GM131949-01 (PI: Ming-Chin Yeh). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health.
Email questions and comments about this abstract to tuf37741@temple.edu.
