Objective: The purpose of this paper is to critically review intervention studies that aimed to increase African-Americans' participation in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening.
Data source: Potential studies were identified using a combination of key words in five computerized databases.
Study inclusion and exclusion criteria: Articles were selected if they met all of the inclusion criteria: (1) The study's purpose was to test an intervention to increase CRC screening. (2) At least 50% of the sample was African-American. (3) The study focused on individuals 50 years and older. (4) The study was published between 2000 and 2008.
Data extraction: Abstracts and reference lists were scanned to determine relevance and a copy of the article was obtained.
Data synthesis: Data from each study were extracted and placed in a matrix for synthesis.
Results: Interventions focused on recruitment from health care centers, churches, housing projects, and senior centers. Both direct and indirect strategies were used to identify the barriers to CRC screening.
Conclusions: Findings suggest that interventions are most successful when they target individuals or communities, address known barriers to screening, deliver tailored messages, use multiple methods of message delivery, and are delivered over multiple time points.