Randomized controlled trial of mammography intervention in insured very low-income women.

Background: The expectation that insurance coverage mitigates health disparities and equalizes use of healthcare assumes that services are equally accessed; however, the insured low-income target population in this research had a mammography rate of 23.4%, well below the general population. Our objective was to determine the most effective intervention to improve mammography use in low-income women insured by a managed care organization (MCO).

Impact of a two-city community cancer prevention intervention on African Americans.

We report the first multisite, multicomponent community intervention trial to focus on cancer prevention in African Americans. The project explored the potential of historically black medical schools to deliver health information to their local communities and used a community-based participatory research approach. The intervention consisted of culturally sensitive messages at appropriate educational levels delivered over an 18-month period and tested in predominantly black census tracts in Nashville, TN and Atlanta, GA.

Prevalence and correlates of initiation of smoking behavior among preteen black and white children.

This study estimated smoking prevalence and identified factors associated with initiation among preteens in Nashville, TN. An anonymous, self-administrated questionnaire was given to 238 fifth- and sixth-graders in a middle-class neighborhood school. The mean age at initiation was 8.