Identifying churches for community-based mammography promotion: lessons from the LAMP study.
There is great potential in public health and faith communities partnering to promote health education and research. This article describes lessons learned from the design and implementation of such a partnership, the Los Angeles Mammography Promotion in Churches Program (LAMP). It is feasible, although challenging, to enumerate and survey churches in a geographically defined urban population, using data compiled from telephone directories, religious sources (e.g., denominational networks), chambers of commerce, and newspapers. Among those sources, telephone directories provided the broadest coverage, whereas religious sources yielded the highest recruitment rate. For collecting survey data from churches, telephone methods are superior to mail methods. For church-based health education programs that seek comprehensive coverage and have adequate resources, it is recommended that telephone directories be combined with religious sources to identify target churches. For programs with limited resources and less emphasis on comprehensive coverage, using religious sources alone is recommended.
Duan
Naihua
N
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Center for Community Health, University of California at Los Angeles 90024-6543, USA. naihua@mednet.ucla.edu
Fox
Sarah
S
Derose
Kathryn Pitkin
KP
Carson
Sally
S
Stockdale
Susan
S
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000517:prevention & control; D016251:CD-ROM / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D004181:Directories as Topic; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011177:Postal Service; D012067:Religion; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone