Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancer types among South Asian women. Regular utilisation of cancer screening may help reduce cervical cancer risk, as early detection through cancer screening would enable timely treatment of the cancer and prevent its progression. Nevertheless, South Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong were reported to face multiple barriers to cervical cancer screening utilisation, including the language barrier, and lack of knowledge on how screening services can be accessed. Moreover, these individuals are generally not aware of the importance of regular cervical cancer screening utilisation. These factors contribute to the low cervical cancer screening utilisation rate among South Asian women in Hong Kong, rendering them at higher risk to develop cervical cancer. Strategies need to be developed to enhance the intention of South Asian ethnic minorities to undergo screening and their accessibility to screening services.

The project utilises community health workers (CHWs) in educating South Asian women on the importance of cervical cancer screening and how screening services can be accessed, to address the low cervical cancer screening utilisation rate among these individuals. CHWs possess a background knowledge of public health, and are trusted individuals with the same ethnic origin as those within the local South Asian communities. They speak the same language as the local South Asian women. The utilisation of CHWs in delivering health education to local South Asians would therefore be more effective, where the language barrier in health information dissemination would not be an issue and the South Asians would tend to trust the CHWs on their recommendations. These CHWs would also accompany South Asians to attend screening appointments, thereby addressing the issue on the lack of knowledge on how screening services can be accessed.

We expect that the training of CHWs would enable the trainees to educate the local South Asian women on the importance of cervical cancer screening utilisation, and assist these women to undergo screening, more effectively. This would potentially enhance the intention of these women to undergo screening, and enable them to face fewer difficulties to do so. Ultimately, this project could help enhance the cervical cancer screening utilisation rate among South Asian women in Hong Kong, enabling them to detect any signs of cervical cancer development early.

• About 50 South Asian women will be trained to become CHWs.


• These trained CHWs will provide information to local adult women from India, Pakistan or Nepal aged 25 or above on cervical cancer screening and assist them in attending cervical cancer screening appointments.


• We expect that 800-1,200 South Asian women will be benefitted by this programme.

2022

Ethnic Minorities, Healthcare