A Youth-led Intervention to Reduce Healthcare Disparities in Cancer Screening

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Youth-led cancer screening intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07008781

Pro2025000586

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study engages youth as health advocates to increase cancer screening in their community. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of a youth-led intervention on cancer screening awareness in adults who are overdue for cancer screening.

Enrollment: 84 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15 to 80 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Student at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School (15-18 years) and their adult family members (18+ years old) who are NJ residents.
• Adults must be eligible for at least one cancer screening other than skin (see below).
• Participants must be fluent in either English or Spanish and the youth must speak the same language as the adult.

Breast: 40-74 year old women Cervical: 21-65 year old women with a cervix (have not had a hysterectomy) Colorectal: 45-75 year olds Prostate: 50 to 69 year old men (start at 45 for black males) Lung: 50 to 80 year olds who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years

Overall:

21-75 year old women 45-75 year old men 76-80 year olds who currently smoke or quit within the past 15 years

Exclusion criteria

• Students less than 15 years old.
• Adults not eligible for a cancer screening of interest.
• Unable to speak fluent English or Spanish.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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84 participants in 1 patient group

Youth-led cancer screening intervention

Experimental group

Description:

High school students will be trained as health advocates and then facilitate discussions about cancer screening recommendations and risk factors with adults in their community. High school students (15-18 years old) from the local community will be recruited for this study, and each student will recruit adults that they live with or are part of their community (i.e. parent) who are eligible for cancer screening. The adult plus youth dyads will all undergo the same youth-led intervention in which the youth will utilize motivational interviewing to discuss cancer screening recommendations and risk factors with their adults and help their adults enroll in cancer screening through ScreenNJ, a community organization that aims to increase cancer screening in New Jersey, reduce cancer mortality rates, and reduce disparities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Youth-led cancer screening intervention