A youth-led intervention to reduce healthcare disparities in cancer screening
The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a youth-led intervention to increase cancer screening rates and awareness among adults overdue for cancer screening. High school students will be trained as health advocates and then facilitate discussions about cancer screening recommendations and risk factors with adults in their community. High school students (15-18 years old) from the local community will be recruited for this study, and each student will recruit adults with they live with or are part of their community (i.e. parent) who are eligible for cancer screening. The adult plus youth dyads will all undergo the same youth-led intervention in which the youth will utilizemotivational interviewing to discuss cancer screening recommendationsand risk factors with their adults and help their adults enroll in cancerscreening through ScreenNJ, a community organization that aims toincrease cancer screening in New Jersey, reduce cancer mortality rates,and reduce disparities. The primary study outcome is enrollment in cancer screening post-intervention. In addition, we will collect secondary outcomes of cancer screening knowledge in the adult and youth, youth self-efficacy, adult activation, as well as implementation metrics ofintervention acceptability and feasibility. We will also capture the proportion of adults who are overdue for each cancer type. Bringing cancer screening education directly to patients' homes and empowering youth as health advocates for people in their community can help address cancer screening disparities. This model will reach more patients who are overdue for screenings and may lack access to primary care, ensuring they receive the critical cancer screening resources necessary for early cancer detection and prevention.
- Rutgers University
Inclusion Criteria: - Student at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School (15-18 years) and their adult family members (18+ years old) who are NJ residents. - Adults must be eligible for at least one cancer screening other than skin (see below). - Participants must be fluent in either English or Spanish and the youth must speak the same language as the adult. Breast: 40-74 year old women Cervical: 21-65 year old women with a cervix (have not had a hysterectomy) Colorectal: 45-75 year olds Prostate: 50 to 69 year old men (start at 45 for black males) Lung: 50 to 80 year olds who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years Overall: 21-75 year old women 45-75 year old men 76-80 year olds who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years Exclusion Criteria: - Students less than 15 years old. - Adults not eligible for a cancer screening of interest. - Unable to speak fluent English or Spanish.
Please note that we have obtained the inclusion and exclusion criteria information from the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trials web site ClinicalTrials.gov. The listed criteria may not necessarily reflect recent amendments to the protocol and the current criteria.
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