Community health worker hepatitis B education for Cambodian American men and women.

BACKGROUND

Cambodian Americans have high rates of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver cancer. There is very limited information about the utility of community health worker (CHW) approaches to cancer education for Asian American men. We have previously reported our positive findings from a trial of CHW education about HBV for Cambodian Americans who had never been tested for HBV. This report describes similarities and differences between the outcomes of our CHW HBV educational intervention among Cambodian American men and women.

METHODS

The study group for this analysis included 87 individuals (39 men and 48 women) who were randomized to the experimental (HBV education) arm of our trial, participated in the CHW educational intervention, and provided follow-up data six months post-intervention. We examined HBV testing rates at follow-up, changes in HBV-related knowledge between baseline and follow-up, and barriers to HBV testing (that were reported to CHWs) by gender.

RESULTS

At follow-up, 15% of men and 31% of women reported they had received a HBV test (p=0.09). HBV-related knowledge levels increased significantly among both men and women. With respect to HBV testing barriers, women were more likely than men to cite knowledge deficits, and men were more likely than women to cite logistic issues.

DISCUSSION

Our study findings indicate that CHW interventions can positively impact knowledge among Cambodian American men, as well as women. They also suggest CHW interventions may be less effective in promoting the use of preventive procedures by Cambodian American men than women. Future CHW research initiatives should consider contextual factors that may differ by gender and, therefore, potentially influence the relative effectiveness of CHW interventions for men versus women.