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J Immigrant Minority Health (2009) 11:281290 DOI 10.1007/s10903-007-9094-2
ORIGINAL PAPER
The Jade Ribbon Campaign: A Model Program for Community Outreach and Education to Prevent Liver Cancer in Asian Americans
Stephanie D. Chao Ellen T. Chang Phuoc V. Le Wijan Prapong Michaela Kiernan Samuel K. S. So
Published online: 8 November 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract The Jade Ribbon Campaign (JRC) is a culturally targeted, community-based outreach program to promote the prevention, early detection, and management of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver cancer among Asian Americans. In 2001, 476 Chinese American adults from the San Francisco Bay Area attended an HBV screening clinic and educational seminar. The prevalence of chronic HBV infection was 13%; only 8% of participants showed serologic evidence of protective antibody from prior vaccination. Participants reported low preventive action before the clinic, but after one year, 67% of those with chronic HBV infection had consulted a physician for liver cancer screening, and 78% of all participants had encouraged family members to be tested for HBV. The increase in HBV awareness, screening, and physician follow-up suggests that culturally aligned interventions similar to the JRC may help reduce the
disproportionate burden of disease to chronic HBV infection among Asian Americans.
Keywords Education Hepatitis B virus Liver cancer
Asian Americans Chinese Americans Screening
Prevention
Introduction
Asian Americans are proportionally the fastest growing racial group in the US [1], and the majority are immigrants from eastern or southeastern Asia [2]areas with a high prevalence of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and, consequently, high incidence of liver cancer [3]. In these regions, the prevalence of chronic HBV infection is over 10%, whereas it is below 0.5% in the overall US [4, 5]. HBV infection is etiologically associated with the majority of liver cancer worldwide [6]. In the US, the incidence rate of liver cancer among Asian/Pacic Islander Americans is over three times that among non-Hispanic White Americans [7]. Of the most common cancers among Asian men in California, liver cancer is ranked second among Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese, fourth in Chinese, and fth in Filipino and Korean Americans [8]. Likewise, liver cancer is one of the top 10 cancers among Cambodian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, and Vietnamese women in California [8, 9]....