Black Veterans face disproportionately higher rates of lung cancer diagnosis and death compared to other groups. Despite lung cancer screening (LCS) being life-saving through early detection, many Black Veterans remain unscreened due to low awareness, distrust of the VA system, and negative beliefs about lung cancer outcomes. This research aims to address these barriers by partnering with the National Association for Black Veterans (NABVETS) to co-design and test a community-based LCS awareness toolkit that can be distributed through trusted community organizations.
- Research Summary
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Black Veterans are especially affected, facing higher rates of both lung cancer diagnosis and death compared to other groups. Although lung cancer screening (LCS) can save lives by finding lung cancer early, many Black Veterans have not been screened. This is often due to low awareness, lack of trust in the VA, and negative beliefs—such as thinking that lung cancer always leads to death or that it cannot be effectively treated.
My research aims to reduce these barriers and improve LCS uptake among Black Veterans by developing community-based interventions in close partnership with the community. Our study builds on our previous community-based intervention to develop a feasible and scalable solution to increase awareness and uptake of LCS. Partnering with National Association for Black Veterans (NABVETS), a national community-based organization (CBO) that supports Veterans through education, healthcare access, and social connection - we will co-design and test a LCS awareness toolkit that can be shared through trusted CBOs like NABVETS. This work is the first step toward a larger, randomized trial that will test the effectiveness of a culturally relevant and tailored intervention, developed in partnership with Black Veterans, to improve awareness of and uptake of LCS.
- Technical Abstract
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, with Black Veterans facing disproportionately high rates of both lung cancer incidence and mortality. Despite the potential of lung cancer screening (LCS) to reduce lung-cancer mortality, barriers such as low awareness of LCS, mistrust of the VA, stigma and fatalism about lung cancer have resulted in low uptake, particularly among Black Veterans. There is an urgent need for culturally relevant, community-driven interventions that can increase LCS awareness and uptake among Black Veterans.
My research portfolio seeks to address health disparities in lung cancer and to engage the community in research to develop acceptable and culturally relevant interventions to improve health outcomes. My LUNGevity proposal will expand my team’s prior work by co-designing a scalable LCS awareness toolkit with National Association for Black Veterans (NABVETS), a national community-based organization (CBO) that supports Black Veterans (Aim 1) and conducting a feasibility pilot of this intervention (Aim 2). The hypothesis driving this research is that leveraging the expertise and infrastructure of CBOs to disseminate a culturally relevant, scalable LCS awareness toolkit can increase both awareness and uptake of LCS among Black Veterans. This project serves as a foundational step that will guide future research to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention on a wider scale, ultimately leading to a more sustainable model for improving LCS in Black Veterans through CBOs.