The African American Women and Mass Media (AAMM) campaign in Georgia: quantifying community response to a CDC pilot campaign.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether a culturally appropriate campaign using "Black radio" and print media increased awareness and utilization of local mammography screening services provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program among African American women.


METHODS
The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design involving data collection during and after campaign implementation in two intervention sites in GA (Savannah with radio and print media and Macon with radio only) and one comparison site (Columbus, GA). We used descriptive statistics to compare mammography uptake for African American women during the initial months of the campaign (8/08-1/09) with the latter months (2/09-8/09) and a post-campaign (9/09-12/09) period in each of the study sites. Comparisons of monthly mammogram uptake between cities were performed with multinomial logistic regression. We assumed a p value <0.05 to be significant.


RESULTS
We observed an increase of 46 and 20 % in Savannah and Macon, respectively, from the initial period of the campaign to the later period. However, the increase did not persist in the post-campaign period. Analysis comparing monthly mammogram uptake in Savannah and Macon with Columbus showed a significant increase in uptake from the first to the second period in Savannah only (OR 1.269, 95 % CI (1.005-1.602), p = 0.0449).


CONCLUSIONS
Dissemination of health promotion messages via a culturally appropriate, multicomponent campaign using Black radio and print media was effective in increasing mammogram uptake in Savannah among low-income, African American women. Additional research is needed to quantify the relative contribution of campaign radio, print media, and community components to sustain increased mammography uptake.
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA, 30341, USA, ihall@cdc.gov.
Ingrid J
IJ
Hall
Ashani
A
Johnson-Turbes
Zahava
Z
Berkowitz
Yasmine
Y
Zavahir
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008402:Mass Media; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D014481:United States