Strategies for increasing physicians', nurses', and mammography technicians' participation in research.

Background: Breast cancer screening in physicians' daily practices needs greater emphasis. Increasing provider participation in research in this area can be a challenge as demonstrated in our study to test interventions targeting rural health care providers.

Method: Recruitment methods for the randomized controlled trial involving 27 counties in the Mississippi River Delta region of Arkansas included the following: introductory letters and return postcards, mailed questionnaires, telephone calls, attendance at local medical staff meetings, and telephoning the primary care offices to set a time to meet the providers at their practice sites.

The Delta project: increasing breast cancer screening among rural minority and older women by targeting rural healthcare providers.

Purpose/objectives: To test a multimethod approach designed for rural healthcare providers to increase breast cancer screening among low-income, African American, and older women.

Design: Two-year experimental pretest/post-test with random assignment by group.

Setting: Primary healthcare providers' offices.

Developing and testing lay literature about breast cancer screening for African American women.

Written materials about breast cancer screening for African American women with low literacy skills are needed. Available materials were not at or below third-grade reading levels, were not culturally sensitive, and were not accurate in illustrating correct breast self-examination (BSE) techniques. Focus groups representing the target population helped the authors design a pamphlet describing how to perform BSE and a motivational picture book to help women overcome barriers to screening.