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Biomedical subjects

A L Dorwaldt

Publications and source records attributed to A L Dorwaldt.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Two community outreach strategies to increase breast cancer screening among low-income women.

BACKGROUND: Two approaches were designed for low-income women to promote their use of mammography screening. METHODS: During 1995-96, as part of a community outreach project in a Florida city, 1,157 women aged 45 years or older attended group education sessions on breast cancer screening, while another 1,450 participated in one-on-one talks about screening at display tables in various public places. County mammography registry data were used to assess changes in the use of mammography screening. RESULTS: Among women 55 years old or older, especially whites, the one-on-one approach was more often associated with subsequent mammography screening than was the group approach. African American women and Latina women appeared to benefit more from the group approach than from the one-on-one approach. CONCLUSIONS: Group or one-on-one breast cancer screening education can improve screening behaviors among low-income women, depending on the age and ethnicity of the women targeted.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMed2000

Helping women quit smoking: results of a community intervention program.

OBJECTIVES: This intervention was implemented to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among women. METHODS: We used community organization approaches to create coalitions and task forces to develop and implement a multicomponent intervention in 2 counties in Vermont and New Hampshire, with a special focus on providing support to help women quit smoking. Evaluation was by pre-intervention and post-intervention random-digit-dialed telephone surveys in the intervention counties and the 2 matched comparison counties. RESULTS: In the intervention counties, compared with the comparison counties, the odds of a woman being a smoker after 4 years of program activities were 0.88 (95% confidence interval = 0.78, 1.00) (P = .02, 1-tailed); women smokers' perceptions of community norms about women smoking were significantly more negative (P = .002, 1-tailed); and the quit rate in the past 5 years was significantly greater (25.4% vs 21.4%; P = .02, 1-tailed). Quit rates were significantly higher in the intervention counties among younger women (aged 18 to 44 years); among women with household annual incomes of $25,000 or less; and among heavier smokers (those who smoked 25 or more cigarettes daily). CONCLUSIONS: In these rural counties, community participation in planning and implementing interventions was accompanied by favorable changes in women's smoking behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Community-based promotion of breast screening using small group education.

Small Group Education (SGE) to promote breast cancer screening was implemented in a community-wide program. Based on diffusion of innovations theory, SGE initially was directed toward women at higher occupation and education levels and then progressively shifted toward more vulnerable populations of women at risk of not getting screening. During the four-year intervention, 116 volunteers led SGE presentations, with 8,184 women participating in 740 groups at work sites, organizations, residences, and churches. High participation in SGE and positive participant responses suggest that delivery of SGE using a social diffusion model was an effective method for reaching women throughout the community.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Barriers to condom use among women attending planned parenthood clinics.

Assessed condom use, barriers to condom use, oral contraceptive use, partnership status and STD history in 457 15-30 year-old women attending four family planning clinics. Subjects were classified into three condom use groups: Non Users (37%); Current Users (33%); and Past Users (30%). Factor analysis revealed five barriers to condom use: Partner's Perception, Peer's Perception, Pleasure/Intimacy, Communication, and Low Perceived Need. Multivariate analyses revealed significant group differences on only two barrier factors: Pleasure/Intimacy and Low Perceived Need. Low Perceived Need accounted for 13.5% of the variance in condom use. Women with low perceived need to use condoms were more likely to use oral contraceptives.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

A community-wide program in breast self-examination training and maintenance.

This study reports on the effects of innovative community-wide breast self-examination education approaches in increasing breast self-examination frequency and quality, and ability to detect breast lumps during a 1-year training program and a second-year maintenance program. Four Vermont communities were randomly assigned to receive breast self-examination training plus maintenance, training alone, control (with full measurement), and low-measurement control. Random digit dialing telephone surveys were conducted at baseline and at 1- and 2-year follow-up with a panel of 637 women representing all adult women in the first three communities. The low-measurement control community received only baseline and second-year follow-up surveys with a panel of 238 women. Home interviews to determine breast self-examination palpation skills and lump detection on silicone breast models were conducted in first- and second-year follow-up surveys. Results of the first-year follow-up survey indicated significant increases in breast self-examination frequency, quality, and number of lumps detected for women in communities receiving the training program compared with controls; in the second year, women in the community also receiving breast self-examination maintenance showed greater improvement in reported breast self-examination quality and detected more breast lumps than did women in other communities.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Why volunteers helped to promote a community breast self-exam program.

Involving volunteers in community health programs is common practice. However, there is little information about specific methods to motivate volunteers to become involved and stay involved. In a community breast self-exam (BSE) education project, volunteers played a major role in the recruitment of women for BSE training presentations given by nurse instructors. Working in a support group capacity, approximately 20 women volunteers in each of two communities completed recruitment tasks such as hosting presentations in their own homes, arranging for presentations for a club or organization, and endorsing the program in the media. At the end of a three-month period, the activities of these volunteers had increased participation of community women in presentations by 50% in one community and 115% in the second community, and the BSE education program had increased both the frequency and quality of BSE practice throughout both communities. Because of the success of the volunteer support group strategy, an interview was conducted with the eleven "super-star" volunteers to assess the motivational factors influencing their initial and continued involvement. Results include a description of common characteristics of these highly motivated volunteers and several recommendations for volunteer administrators or for anyone attempting to recruit and maintain motivated groups of volunteers.

Breast Neoplasms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Breast screening by African-American women: insights from a household survey and focus groups.

This study uses quantitative and qualitative information to examine the relationships between predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors from a health education planning model and levels of mammography screening, clinical breast exam (CBE), and breast self-exam (BSE) among African-American women. We analyzed data from a random sample household survey of African-American women in a Florida community (n = 281) and three age-homogenous focus groups from the same population. Two thirds of the random sample and all of the focus group participants had less than a high school education and household incomes below $10,000. Even though both samples of women were likely to have a physician they see regularly, most had never had a mammogram and could not accurately describe more than two major techniques for BSE. Knowing guidelines for mammography, CBE, and BSE (predisposing factors), believing their screening behavior mattered to at least some family members (reinforcing factor), seeing a physician for health care and advice, and having been taught BSE in a physician's office (enabling factors) predicted one form of breast screening behavior or another in multivariate logistic regression analyses. In addition, knowing mammography and BSE guidelines and having been taught BSE in a physician's office were significant predictors of breast-screening behavior for both low- and moderate-income women. Focus-group participants unanimously reported a willingness to listen to physician instructions regarding breast screening and to receive a mammogram if their physician recommended one. Both survey and focus group results emphasize the particular importance of physicians in promoting breast screening among African-American women regardless of their income.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Helping women quit smoking: baseline observations for a community health education project.

INTRODUCTION: Our objectives were (1) to examine the relationship between women's intention of stopping smoking in the next month and a broad range of mediating variables and (2) to assess the implications of these relationships for intervention components of a comprehensive community-wide health education program to help women quit smoking. METHODS: In preparation for the community-wide program to help women quit smoking, baseline data were collected through a random digit dialing telephone survey of 6,324 adult women, 18-64 years of age. RESULTS: At baseline, smoking prevalence, defined as smoking an average of one or more cigarettes per day, was 25.8% and showed clear relationships with age and income, but most strikingly with education, indicating the need for programs for women of childbearing age with low incomes and fewer years of schooling. Among female smokers, knowledge of the health effects of smoking; motivations toward quitting; confidence in controlling weight, or handling stress, anger or boredom; number of strategies named to cope when upset of angry; number of community smoking cessation resources named; perceptions of support for quitting; and perceptions of norms concerning women smoking varied significantly with level of intention to quit smoking in the next month. CONCLUSIONS: These relationships provided support for the broad range of health behavior change strategies proposed for this community-based program to help women quit smoking.

Adaptation, Psychological↗