Abstract
Background. Asian Americans suffer from liver and cervical cancers, both vaccine preventable, yet vaccine awareness has not been described. Methods. Cross-sectional survey (6 languages, 380 adult women). Results. Those with limited English proficiency (LEP) were less likely to have accurate knowledge of cervical cancer vaccine (44% vs. 76%, among the 34% aware of any cancer-preventive vaccines) and were more likely to believe vaccines existed for non-vaccine-preventable cancers. Awareness of anti-liver cancer vaccine was low for both LEP and non-LEP women. Conclusion. There is a great need to educate Asian Americans about vaccine-preventable cancers, especially among LEP women.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The data were collected at a community outreach event sponsored by the American Cancer Society Pennsylvania Division Southeast Region and Susan G. Komen for the Cure Philadelphia Affiliate. The authors wish to thank the community partners/event volunteers for participant recruitment and Bryan Anmuth for data entry. They also thank Drs. Marjorie Bowman, Joseph Cappella, Diane Harper, and Joshua Metlay for review of earlier versions of the manuscript.
Notes
Presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, Atlanta, GA, November 2007.
Supported by a Cancer Control Career Development Award from the American Cancer Society (GTN; CCCDA-05-161-01), a Pfizer Fellowship in Health Literacy/Clear Health Communication (GTN), the National Cancer Institute (AEL; P50CA095856), and the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands (AEL).