Racial/ethnic minorities are underrepresented in current biobanking programs. The current study utilized community-based participatory research to identify motivating factors and barriers that affect older African Americans’ willingness to donate biospecimens. The standardized phone survey was administered to 78 African Americans who are 55 years old or older and live in the metropolitan Detroit area to assess their overall willingness to donate biospecimens and what factors were associated with it. The majority of the participants were willing to donate biospecimens, along with their personal information, for medical research and indicated that they did donate biospecimens when they were asked. However, African Americans were rarely asked to participate in biobanking programs. Furthermore, African Americans were not as concerned with research exploitation or as mistrusting of medical researchers as previously thought by the medical researchers. Even if African Americans were concerned over potential research exploitation or mistrust of medical researchers, these concerns or mistrust did not translate into an actual unwillingness to participate in biobanking programs. Rather, transparency in medical research and biobanking programs was more important when predicting African Americans’ willingness to donate biospecimens for medical research. The findings suggest that underrepresentation of African Americans in current biobanking programs may not be due to their willingness/unwillingness to participate in such programs, but rather due to a failure of medical researchers to approach them. Additionally, researchers and clinicians should focus on increasing the transparency of medical research and biobanking programs rather than changing African Americans’ potential negative attitudes toward them.

This study investigated the beliefs and attitudes of older African American colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors that may influence health behavior changes after treatment. Drawing from existing theories of health behavior change and cultural beliefs about health, a semi-structured interview guide was developed to elicit survivors' perspectives. Qualitative focus groups and interviews were conducted with 17 survivors identified through the Detroit Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results registry. Using verbatim transcripts from the sessions and NVivo software, thematic analysis was conducted to analyze patterns of responses. Transcripts were coded for seven categories (health behaviors, who/what motivates change, self-efficacy, fatalism, religion/spirituality, beliefs about cancer, race/ethnicity). Five themes emerged from the data (personal responsibility, resilience, desire for information, intentions to change, beliefs in divine control). Findings support the relevance of existing theories of health behavior change to older African American CRC survivors. Cultural considerations are suggested to improve interventions seeking to maximize changes in diet and exercise among this group of survivors.

This community-based project evolved out of relationships established through the Detroit CNP for Older, Underserved African-Americans (NIH# U01-CA114583-04) to address the unmet needs of the clientele of three partnering community agencies. The need for breast cancer screening among older women from lower socioeconomic groups, the mentally ill, and the disabled has been well-documented. However, mammography among these special populations is low. This project brought together five organizations (three community service agencies, the NCI's Cancer Information Service Partnership Program, and the Karmanos Cancer Institute's Community Network Program) to provide breast health awareness, mammography screening, and navigation to underserved African American women. The five agencies collaborated to address the needs of the homebound, developmentally disabled, homeless, nursing home residents, grandparents raising grandchildren, and others. All groups were identified through a community assessment to identify significant barriers to accessing preventive health care services. Through community-based participatory research (CBPR), the members of the partner organizations worked with community health education professionals to define: 1) community-level needs; 2) assess how best to integrate screening messages and health service navigation into existing service provision; and 3) identify ways to obtain external funding for program implementation. The CBPR process yielded an intervention that consisted of staff training, improved screening needs assessment and procedures for case management referral and follow-up that increased agency capacity to address breast health disparities. A total of 490 women participated in this “high-touch” breast health education and screening intervention. Of those, 170 women received screening mammography and six women were diagnosed and received subsequent treatment and follow-up. The project was recently recognized by the Michigan Cancer Consortium, receiving their highest recognition, the Spirit of Collaboration Award. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A28.