Reducing Cancer Disparities for American Indians in the Rural Intermountain West

Reducing Cancer Disparities for American Indians in the Rural Intermountain West

The purpose of this demonstration is to evaluate the effectiveness of using community outreach workers (navigators) to help American Indians living in rural areas overcome barriers to appropriate cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.

Even for American Indians who have coverage with Medicare, disparities have been noted in the provision of cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. These disparities have been related to a variety of health-system, health-financing, geographic, and cultural barriers. We hypothesize that the use of lay community outreach workers will be an effective means of identifying and overcoming these barriers in order to improve the proportion of Medicare-eligible American Indians who receive recommended screening and diagnosis for prostate, breast, colon, and cervical cancer, and the proportion of individuals receiving appropriate treatment for prostate, breast, colon, cervical, and lung cancer. Community clusters randomized to this form of cancer navigation will be compared with community clusters randomized to receive educational outreach only.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled in Medicare Part B
• Self-reported American Indian

Exclusion Criteria:

• Have cancer other than study cancer
• Medicare Part C enrolled