title: The development of a community action plan to reduce breast and cervical cancer disparities between African-American and White women.
abstract: The purpose of this project was to establish a coalition of academic, state, and community-based organizations to develop a community action plan (CAP) to eliminate breast and cervical cancer morbidity and mortality disparities between African-American (AA) and Caucasian women. The project targeted rural and urban low-income AA women in Alabama. Based on the logic model, community capacity building was implemented, followed by the development of a community-driven CAP. For community capacity building, a coalition comprising 12 organizations was established, and a network of 84 community volunteers was formed. Community needs assessments identified 3 levels of barriers to breast and cervical cancer screening: 1) individual, 2) community systems, and 3) healthcare provider. Based on these findings, a community-driven CAP was developed. Our results indicate that a coalition of diverse organizations can partner and develop CAPs to improve the health of their communities.
authors.affiliation: Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 35294-4410, USA. mfouad@uab.edu
authors.forename: Mona N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Fouad
authors.forename: M Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Rhoda E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Theresa A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Wynn
authors.forename: Edward E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Partridge
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dignan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000407:Alabama; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006265:Health Care Coalitions / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D040361:Healthy People Programs; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D020380:Needs Assessment; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*