UCLA public health researchers go to church to promote hepatitis B screening

UCLA-Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity To reach a vulnerable population largely unaware of the health risks, a team from the Fielding School for Public Health held small group discussions in more than 50 Los Angeles-area Korean churches. For the large Korean American-community in Los Angeles, chronic infection with the hepatitis B virus looms as a significant — and too often unspoken — health threat, associated with the highest rates of liver cancer for any ethnic group in Los Angeles. Knowing one’s hepatitis B status can be critical — it allows those who test HBV-negative to be immunized against the virus while pointing the way toward early treatment as well as more vigilant efforts to prevent transmission for those who are positive. But most adults in L.A.’s Korean-American community have never been screened and are unaware of whether they carry the virus. In an effort to change that, a research team from the UCLA Fielding School for Public Health’s Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity and Center for Cancer Prevention and Control Research, working in partnership with leaders of Los Angeles’ Korean-American community, set out to increase HBV screening in the population through small group discussions led by trained community members. For their study testing the impact of this strategy, they chose unlikely venues: 52 Korean churches in Los Angeles. “When we started, people questioned the feasibility of having discussions about a sexually ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news