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