title: Un Abrazo Para La Familia: providing low-income Hispanics with education and skills in coping with breast cancer and caregiving.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Un Abrazo Para La Familia (A Hug for the Family) is an intervention designed to increase the accessibility of cancer information to low-income and medically underserved co-survivors of cancer. Co-survivors are family members or friends of an individual diagnosed with cancer. Our goal was to increase socio-emotional support for these co-survivors and improve skills in coping with cancer. The purpose of our pilot study was to explore the effectiveness of the intervention in increasing cancer knowledge and self-efficacy among co-survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Un Abrazo consisted of three one-hour sessions, in either Spanish or English. Sessions were delivered by a trained promotora (community health worker), in partnership with a counselor. Sixty participants completed measures of cancer knowledge and self-efficacy preceding (pre-test) and following the intervention (post-test).
  
  
  RESULTS
  From pre-test to post-test, the percentage of questions answered correctly about cancer knowledge increased (p < 0.001), as did ratings of self-efficacy (p < 0.001). Decreases were seen in 'Do not know' responses for cancer knowledge (p < 0.01), with a negative correlation between number of 'Do not knows' on cancer knowledge at pre-test and ratings of self-efficacy at pre-test (r = -0.47, p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When provided an accessible format, co-survivors of cancer from underserved populations increase their cancer knowledge and self-efficacy. This is notable because research indicates that family members and friends with increased cancer knowledge assume more active involvement in the cancer care of their loved ones.
authors.affiliation: Center of Excellence in Women's Health, and Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth and Families, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. marshall@email.arizona.edu
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Terry A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Badger
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Curran
authors.forename: Susan Silverberg
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Koerner
authors.forename: Linda K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Larkey
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Weihs
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verdugo
authors.forename: Francisco A R
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: García
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011203:Poverty; D020377:Self Efficacy