Asian Liver Cancer Education Program in Maryland

Project Funding: This study is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)/John Hopkins University.

Project Description: This was a 4-year project to evaluate existing educational materials for liver cancer prevention and to develop non-traditional and culturally integrated educational materials to be used in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese populations in Maryland. For this project, we worked closely with Dr. Hee-Soon Juon who was at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (see the Maryland Asian American Cancer Program (MAACP) website for more information).

This 4-year project was divided into Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III with specific aims for each period.

Phase I: Development of Educational Strategies

We developed educational strategies tailored to the needs of target communities to increase public awareness of liver cancer prevention. In this phase, we reviewed existing education materials, and conducted 8 focus groups in Maryland Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese communities on their knowledge, attitude and behaviors regarding HBV screening and liver cancer prevention. Results were used to develop culturally tailored educational materials for each ethnic group. These photonovels were used in the phase II interventions.

Photonovels were published in Chinese, Korean , and Vietnamese.

Phase II: Implementation of Intervention Programs

We implemented theory-driven and culturally integrated community-based cancer intervention programs to increase hepatitis B virus screening through increased cancer awareness, outreach, and accessibility to screening for Asian Americans. A randomized control study has been conducted with a total of 877 Asian American participants recruited from community/faith based organizations in Maryland from each ethnicity group.

The intervention included four parts:

1. A powerpoint presentation on general knowledge of hepatitis B and liver cancer in the audience preferred language.

2. A role-play video on patient-physician communication: How to ask for Hepatitis B screening?

  • Click the languages below to view the English role-play video with subtitles in each respective language.

3. A question & answer session.

4. Distribution of photonovels for participants to take home.

Phase III: Evaluation of Interventions

We evaluated the effectiveness of the educational intervention on hepatitis B and liver cancer awareness and examined the impact of the intervention on the study population’s cancer related knowledge, attitudes, efficacy, behavior intent, and screening behaviors.