Arkansas special populations access network perception versus reality—cancer screening in primary care clinics

Abstract

The origin of cancer health disparities and mortality in Arkansas is multifactorial. In response to a cooperative agreement with the National Cancer Institute's Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities, the Arkansas Special Populations Access Network (ASPAN) was developed to reduce these disparities. ASPAN's partnership with local primary care physicians of the Arkansas Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association through the Cancer Education Awareness Program is the focus of this article. A quasi‐experimental intervention, the Community Cancer Education Awareness Program, was employed that included 1) physician education to increase awareness of risk factors and cancer screening; and 2) patient education to increase screening, and 3) patient‐generated screening questionnaires to prompt discussion of cancer risk and screening recommendations between patients and physicians. Two urban and 2 rural clinics were targeted during a 12‐month period with interval intervention assessments. Baseline review of records (n = 200) from patients ≥40 were utilized to assess the rate of breast, prostate, and colorectal screenings among clinics. For the patient education intervention, patients (n = 120) were interviewed via a 34‐item assessment. Physician awareness of cancer risk factors and screening recommendations significantly increased. Statistically significant increases were seen for prostate (P = .028), breast (P = .036), and colorectal (P < .001) cancer screening across all 4 clinics. Patients' increased likelihood of cancer screenings was associated with knowledge about consumption of animal fat (P < .001), dietary fiber (P < .013), and mammograms (P < .001). Utilizing the physician as the central change agent, the ASPAN provider network successfully enhanced cancer screening awareness of minority physicians and their patients. Cancer 2006. © 2006 American Cancer Society.

Trends in colorectal cancer incidence rates by age, race/ethnicity, and indices of access to medical care, 1995–2004 (United States)

“…Several studies have shown that CRC screening rates are significantly lower in medically uninsured than insured persons [6,7], in Hispanics than non-Hispanics [23], in rural than urban, in poor than affluent areas [4,5]. Previous studies have also shown that primary care availability be associated with increased screening rates and early detection of CRC [24][25][26]. Access to colonoscopy screening is also more limited in rural areas, since most colonoscopies are performed by gastroenterologists, who tend to be concentrated near larger metropolitan areas.…”

Conservation and flexibility in the gene regulatory landscape of heliconiine butterfly wings

“…Reads were aligned with Hisat2 aligner to the genome of the respective species [27, 53]. The highest percentage of unique mappings was achieved using default parameters.…”

Colorectal cancer screening in rural and poor-resourced communities

“…The most effective programs have been those tailored to the needs of individual populations, those with navigators to help patients understand and use the medical system, 16 and those with cancer coalition programs in which local leaders work within their communities to increase screening to improve quality of life. 17;18…”