A collaborative approach to identify opportunities for interactions between multiple systems is an important model for childhood obesity prevention. This paper describes a process aligning multiple partners in primary care, public health, university research, schools, and community organizations. Jointly implemented strategies in a Latino underserved community included: (1) building an effective and sustainable collaborative team; (2) disseminating a healthy weight message across sectors; (3) assessing weight status and healthy weight plans in primary care, school, and early childhood settings; and (4) implementing policy changes to support healthy eating and physical activity. The process and lessons learned were analyzed so other communities can utilize a systems approach to develop culturally appropriate interventions tailored to a specific community.

The curriculum has been successfully implemented and represents a carefully constructed tool to foster breast and cervical early detection in underserved Latino communities.

Effective approaches to teaching attitudes, knowledge, and skills to resident physicians in primary care that can be implemented in any residency program are needed. We examined the feasibility and impact of a single palliative care residency curriculum, including a clinical rotation with a hospice program, across 5 cohorts of residents in 7 divergent primary care residency programs (both family medicine and internal medicine). The didactic content was drawn from the national Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care Project. A total of 448 residents completed the curriculum. A large effect size was seen in measures of knowledge change (*Cohen d = .89) when compared to a national sample of primary care residency programs. Additionally, measures of confidence to perform palliative care skills and ethical concerns also improved significantly ( P < .001). A frequent comment is wishing the rest of medicine were like that experienced in the hospice setting. In a separate, ancillary evaluation, the average length of stay of patients enrolled in hospice care was 18.5 days longer for the alumni of this program when compared to physicians referring for hospice care who hadn't experienced the curriculum.

The purpose of this project was to design, implement, and assess a recurring interdisciplinary community health fair in an underserved border town. University of California San Diego (UCSD) medical and pharmacy students, under faculty supervision, worked alongside community partners in Calexico, California to implement a health fair two miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Demographic and screening data were described from 293 participants from 2014 to 2016. Over 90% (269/293) listed Mexico as their country of birth, 82.9% (243/293) were monolingual Spanish speakers, 75.4% (221/293) had an annual household income of ≤ $20,000, and 58.7% (172/293) described their health as fair or poor. Screening revealed 91.1% (265/291) were overweight or obese, 37.8% (109/288) had hypertension, 9.3% (27/289) had elevated blood sugar, and 11.4% (33/289) had elevated total cholesterol levels. This model could be replicated in other training settings to increase exposure to border health issues and connect patients to local health services.

Introduction: Every year in the U.S., there are approximately 11,000 new cases of cervical cancer, and approximately 4000 deaths due to cervical cancer (Jemal, Siegel, Ward, Hao, Xu, & Thun, 2009). The Latino/a population is disproportionately affected by cervical cancer, in that Latinas have higher incidence rates (12.7 per 100,000) and mortality rates (3.1 per 100,000) due to cervical cancer than non-Latina white women (7.3 per 100,000 and 2.1 per 100,000, respectively) (American Cancer Society (ACS), 2009; Downs et al., 2008; Jemal et al., 2009; Saraiya et al, 2007). “Por la Vida” is a San Diego-based Latino/a program dedicated to increasing cancer education in the Latino/a community, through the involvement of consejeras (community health workers), since 1990. The purpose of this study is to examine the success of a “Women and Cancer” program in increasing pap testing in the Latina population. We examined self-reported changes in pap testing behaviors and beliefs about cervical cancer before and after participating in the “Women and Cancer” program, and compared the changes to women who participated in a “Nutrition and Cancer” program, which had no cervical cancer-specific information. Both programs were conducted by “Por la Vida” from the years 1997 through 2002. Method: Participants were 260 Latinas from the “Women and Cancer” program, and 308 Latinas from the “Nutrition and Cancer” program. Participants completed a pre-test (before the program was initiated) and post-test (6 months after completion of the program) questionnaire that examined their health behaviors and health-related beliefs. McNemar tests were used to compare changes in behaviors and attitudes from pre-test to post-test for participants in each of the two programs. Results: The number of women who reported they ever had a Pap test increased significantly from pre to post test for women in the “Women and Cancer” program. There was no change in pap testing over time for women in the “Nutrition and Cancer” program. Similarly, the number of women who had a Pap in the last year increased significantly for those in the “Women and Cancer” program, and stayed the same for women in the “Nutrition and Cancer” program. With regard to beliefs about cervical cancer, women who participated in the “Women and Cancer” program gained a significantly more positive outlook toward surviving early stage cervical cancer, while those who participated in the “Nutrition and Cancer” program did not. Discussion: These results reinforce the importance of topic specific, and culturally appropriate education programs for increasing cancer screening behaviors. Such programs have the potential to reduce cancer disparities in underserved populations. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):A20.