Community Based Participatory Approaches to Address Health Disparities in Hawai'i: Recent Applications in Cancer Prevention, Detection and Treatment Programs

Assessment of recent trends in the prevalence and incidence of cancer, and its associated risk and protective factors in the State of Hawai'i illustrate that there are definite ethnic, socio-economic, and geographic health disparities. Disparities in access to health care are reflected in decreased and under utilization of all types of preventive cancer screening tests and decreased proportions of people with health insurance coverage. Increases in obesity mirror U.S. national trends and disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups and those with low income. Tobacco use has increased among at-risk populations including: certain ethnic groups, those with low-income and/or low education and those in rural areas. Data that reveal continuing or worsening health disparities imply that either the old methods have not been effective and/or resources are not available or are not being applied to address such disparities. Promising methodologies and programmatic focuses to reduce health disparities are needed as mechanisms for improving the circumstances of at-risk populations. Community based participatory approaches are described here for cancer prevention, detection, and treatment programs that utilize culturally appropriate methods.