Faith Moves Mountains: A Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Appalachian Wellness & Cancer Prevention Program

Faith Moves Mountains: A CBPR Appalachian Wellness & Cancer Prevention Program

The study purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of a set of culturally appropriate, faith-placed lay health advisor interventions aimed at facilitating smoking cessation and increasing cancer screening among Appalachian participants.

The developmental phase of this project incorporated community based participatory research (CBPR) principles to identify the needs and preferences of community members with regard to cancer prevention. In the intervention phase, this group-randomized trial administers and evaluates a set of culturally appropriate interventions aimed at facilitating smoking cessation and increasing cancer screening among participants in 6 distressed Appalachian counties. Faith institutions are recruited and randomized to treatment or wait-list control conditions, and participants are recruited and enrolled within those institutions. Participants select one or more targeted health behaviors from a menu including smoking cessation, colorectal cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, and breast cancer screening, and subsequently receive the intervention(s) aimed at their selected health behaviors.

Inclusion Criteria:

• For smoking cessation: age 18 or older; current cigarette smoker; able to provide informed consent
• For cervical cancer screening: female; age 18 or older AND outside of screening guidelines; able to provide informed consent
• For breast cancer screening: female; age 40 or older AND outside of screening guidelines; able to provide informed consent
• For colorectal cancer screening: age 40 or older AND outside of screening guidelines; able to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• For smoking cessation: None
• For cervical cancer screening: History of cervical cancer; history of hysterectomy
• For breast cancer screening: History of breast cancer
• For colorectal cancer screening: History of colorectal cancer