Abstract B027: Reducing liver cancer disparities through culturally tailored educational messages: A city-wide bus campaign in Philadelphia City

Abstract

Background: Liver cancer increased 72 percent between 2003 and 2012 in the US. Similarly, the liver cancer death rates in the US are increasing faster than for any other cancer, having doubled since the mid-1980s. People with hepatitis B and C have the greatest risk of liver cancer. In the US, approximately 65 percent of liver cancer cases are related to hepatitis B or C (HBV or HCV), with nearly 50 percent attributable to hepatitis C alone. Objective: The Community Outreach Core (COC) Program is a part of the NCI funded TUFCCC/HC Regional Cancer Health Partnership Program and targets areas of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City. One of the most important goals of the COC is engaging community partners in cancer outreach research to reduce cancer disparities among underserved minority populations in the Partnership targeted geographic areas using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches.The purpose of this project is to mobilize the community to increase awareness of hepatitis B and C, and empower community members to talk to their trusted doctors about hepatitis B and C and to be tested. Method: The campaign features an educational advertisement on SEPTA buses (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) in Philadelphia City, PA. The promotional messages included culturally tailored educational messages targeting high risk residents with HBV or HCV related liver disease. The central message of the ad calls for action of “getting screened for HBV and HCV”. The Campaign ad poster (21”x22”) posted in 115 buses traveling in the City of Philadelphia for 4 weeks. In total, 938,280 bus riders had a chance to view the ad information. 173 survey forms were collected from diverse racial/ethnicity bus riders both men and women during the campaign period. Results: Among the 173 respondents, 22.7% of them reported “saw advertisement on the bus.” Specifically, riders who saw the advertisement are significantly more likely to get screened for HBV/HCV than those who did not see the advertisement (86.5% vs 58.3%). Conclusion: The findings of the project suggested that culturally tailored educational messages can effectively promoting HBV/HCV screening. The next steps of community outreach strategies will also be discussed. Citation Format: Kerry L Traub, Jean Marie Kouassi, Evelyn González, Elizabeth Yi, Safa Ibrahim, Wenyue Lu, Yin Tan, Ming-Chin Yeh, Olorunseun O Ogunwobi, Marilyn A Fraser. Reducing liver cancer disparities through culturally tailored educational messages: A city-wide bus campaign in Philadelphia City [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr B027.