INTERVENTIONS TO INCREASE COLORECTAL CANCER SCREENING AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW SAN ANTONIO MILITARY MEDICAL CENTER

Colorectal cancer (CRC) continues to affect African Americans disproportionately. Despite medical advances and widely accepted screening recommendations, African Americans are less likely to get the appropriate screening and consequently are more likely to die from colorectal cancer than their white counterparts. Appropriate communication between the patient and the provider and increased patient education may be a part of the solution to this discouraging problem. Increasing provider education and cultural awareness may increase colorectal cancer screening among African Americans. The objective of this paper to perform a systematic review of the published literature to assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed to increase colorectal cancer screening among African Americans. Seven online databases were systematically searched for article published between Jan. 2000 and April 2013 using subject terms taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the list of standardized descriptors used by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), to standardize the search. Studies that measured CRC screening rates and met the inclusion/exclusion criteria were selected. Data was extracted and independently reviewed by three reviewers. Study design, population characteristics, experimental intervention, control intervention and outcomes were extracted from the selected article. Of the 649 studies identified as potentially, eleven articles were selected for the review. Four articles reported using culturally tailored interventions and seven articles did not use culturally tailored interventions. Two studies have intervention aimed at physician education. Eight articles reported statistcally significant results. Because of the limited number of quality studies, no conclusive recommendations can be made regarding the contribution of culturally tailored intervention to increasing CRC screening among African Americans.