Community Health Worker Hepatitis B Education for Cambodian American Men and Women

Background: Cambodian Americans have high rates of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and livercancer. There is very limited information about the utility of community health worker (CHW) approaches tocancer education for Asian American men. We have previously reported our positive findings from a trial ofCHW education about HBV for Cambodian Americans who had never been tested for HBV. This report describessimilarities and differences between the outcomes of our CHW HBV educational intervention among CambodianAmerican men and women.
Methods: The study group for this analysis included 87 individuals (39 men and 48women) who were randomized to the experimental (HBV education) arm of our trial, participated in the CHWeducational intervention, and provided follow-up data six months post-intervention. We examined HBV testingrates at follow-up, changes in HBV-related knowledge between baseline and follow-up, and barriers to HBVtesting (that were reported to CHWs) by gender.
Results: At follow-up, 15% of men and 31% of women reportedthey had received a HBV test (p=0.09). HBV-related knowledge levels increased significantly among both menand women. With respect to HBV testing barriers, women were more likely than men to cite knowledge deficits,and men were more likely than women to cite logistic issues. Discussion: Our study findings indicate that CHWinterventions can positively impact knowledge among Cambodian American men, as well as women. They alsosuggest CHW interventions may be less effective in promoting the use of preventive procedures by CambodianAmerican men than women. Future CHW research initiatives should consider contextual factors that may differby gender and, therefore, potentially influence the relative effectiveness of CHW interventions for men versuswomen.