Background:            Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in Vietnamese American women. They are diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age and tend to have distant metastases making optimal treatment difficult. Early screening, detection, and treatment could improve and save lives. Evaluation of educational programs is needed so appropriate methods can be selected for the educational intervention of this population. 

Research design and outcomes: The study was a one-group pretest-posttest design. The setting was a Vietnamese community center located in a southwest area of Texas. The sample consisted of 5 Vietnamese Americans who had responded to a radio announcement of the study, met enrollment criteria, and completed the questionnaires at baseline, immediately after the program, and at 1 month follow up. The HBM scale was used to measure health beliefs and practices, breast cancer knowledge, and BSE knowledge. This instrument was translated into Vietnamese then back translated into English. The results indicated there was an increase in knowledge of breast cancer (20%) and breast self-exam (20%), confidence level in BSE (40%), and a change in beliefs and practices in breast cancer screening and early detection. Instrument reliability was established with Cronbach’s Alpha varying from 0.76-0.82. 

Conclusions and implications: Although the sample was small, this study showed a positive impact to the Vietnamese American women in early breast cancer screening and detection. This study can be used to guide the larger study, which predicted, will have a greater impact on breast cancer early screening and detection health beliefs and practices in this population.

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See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)