Developing Culturally-Tailored Interventions to Overcome Genomic Health Disparities in Communities of Color

Abstract

The ‘Genomic Era’ holds great promise for improving health of individuals and families. Unfortunately advances in genomic healthcare have not benefited all populations equally. To realize the full potential of genomic advances, there is a need to understand human factors and culturally tailor interventions to increase genomic medicine uptake. Leveraging expertise across the disciplines of nursing, social work and sociology we will elucidate promoters/barriers to genomic medicine in communities of color (i.e., non-white). Project I includes a scoping review of Latinx genomic healthcare, an Amazon MTurk survey to examine Latinx genomic literacy/numeracy and community partnerships to conduct Latinx stakeholder interviews and uncover targets for interventions. Project II focuses on familial cancer caused by pathogenic variants in BRCA1/2. Partnering with cancer support groups, we will conduct mixed-methods studies in Black/African-American BRCA+ women and BRCA+ men – groups traditionally overlooked in BRCA research yet critical for cascade screening. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews will be employed to examine attitudes/beliefs, norms and perceived behavioral control relating to cascade screening. Mapping findings to the Theory of Planned Behavior, we will develop culturally adapted interventions to surmount genomic health disparities and enable more effective cascade screening to improve outcomes for at-risk blood relatives.