SOCIAL MARKETING
Thinkhealth.com Breast Cancer Screening Promotion

Leap of Faith Technologies was funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop a Web site focusing on the importance of breast cancer screening and early detection. Our goal was to measure the effectiveness of the Web site in motivating screening intentions and behaviors among a group of women subjects. To evaluate the program’s use and effectiveness in a variety of settings, we provided access to thinkhe@lth.com via kiosks located at nine test sites in the Chicago area and recruited a sample of 749 women to participate.

Results showed the Website to be an effective tool for communicating breast cancer screening information, with significant increases in measures of attitudes, intentions, knowledge, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. On most measures used in the data analysis, the control and test interventions were equally effective. However, the Web site showed advantages in increasing intentions to do breast self examination and in reducing anxiety about getting mammograms.

Among women who reported doing breast-self exams (BSE), the Website was more effective in strengthening intentions to maintain a screening regime than were the printed materials. Also, women who used the Web site reported lower anxiety about breast cancer screening than women who used the printed materials. With regard to knowledge, scores of women who used the Web site increased from pretest to posttest, and stayed consistent over time. Scores of women in the control group increased initially, but then decreased over time.

Post-test and followup survey results from test group participants indicate that the most valuable features of the Web site tended to be the interactive, personalized ones. The risk calculation feature was rated as the most useful feature, and was the most highly used feature as well.

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