An urban intergenerational program for cancer control education.
BACKGROUND
Recognizing the disparities in cancer morbidity and mortality that exist between African Americans and whites, an urban university and its neighborhood community undertook the development of an education program to transfer state-of-the-art cancer prevention, detection, and treatment information from an academic medical center to community residents, including school-age children.


METHODS
An intergenerational, multilevel intervention was developed to: 1) assess the health beliefs of the community, 2) identify, develop, and train an intergenerational group of community residents who would serve as health educators, and 3) promote behavioral change among the target population.


RESULTS
Ten community residents were trained as educators. Over the course of two years they conducted cancer education programs that reached 775 adults. During the same period, the school-based educational intervention reached 264 seventh-grade students.


CONCLUSIONS
Implications for the design and implementation of community-based cancer education programs in this African American community are identified.
Lowe
J I
JI
School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6214, USA.
Barg
F K
FK
Norman
S
S
Mccorkle
R
R
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001294:Attitude to Health; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D003150:Community Health Workers; D019058:Community Networks; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D013663:Teaching; D013664:Teaching Materials; D014504:Urban Health; D044465:White People