Promoting Colorectal Cancer Screening in Rural Colorado

Specific Aims:

• Using community-based participatory research (CBPR), incorporate an existing Community Advisory Council into a project-specific Joint Planning Committee to provide community voices and be experts for a project to design strategies to improve CRC screening of all adults over the age of 50 in the High Plains community.
• Work with the Joint Planning Committee to develop an acceptable and respectful message and dissemination plan to change the community perception concerning colorectal cancer screening.
• Conduct a random digit dialing survey of rural eastern Colorado to determine rates of individuals up to date on CRC screening and to determine current knowledge level of individuals over 50 concerning the need for CRC screening.
• Deliver the screening message(s) through the methods suggested by the Joint Planning Committee in two High Plains communities and solicit community members' reactions to the message(s) and dissemination approaches.

Setting

The Intervention Communities:

The nine rural counties within northeast Colorado that make up the High Plains communities encompass 15,000-square-miles. The economy is largely agricultural, with a population of approximately 90,000. Based on the 2000 census 22% (range 20-29%) of the population is over 50, which is higher than the state as a whole (20%) or the Denver Metropolitan Statistical Area - MSA (18%). There is not a single MSA in the High Plains region and most of the region is a frontier area and therefore considered an underserved community.