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Effects of a web-based intervention on women’s breast health behaviors

  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Helping women make choices to reduce cancer risk and to improve breast health behaviors is important, but the best ways to reach more people with intervention assistance is not known. To test the efficacy of a web-based intervention designed to help women make better breast health choices, we adapted our previously tested, successful breast health intervention package to be delivered on the Internet, and then we tested it in a randomized trial. We recruited women from the general public to be randomized to either an active intervention group or a delayed intervention control group. The intervention consisted of a specialized website providing tailored and personalized risk information to all participants, followed by offers of additional support if needed. Follow-up at one-year post randomization revealed significant improvements in mammography screening in intervention women compared with control women (improvement of 13 percentage points). The intervention effects were more powerful in women who increased breast health knowledge and decreased cancer worry during intervention. These data indicate that increases in mammography can be accomplished in population-based mostly insured samples by implementing this simple, low resource intensive intervention.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., MP-900, Seattle, WA, 98109-1024, USA

    Deborah J. Bowen Ph.D., Robert Robbins Ph.D., Nigel Bush Ph.D., Hendrika Meischke Ph.D., Abi Ludwig & Jean Wooldridge MPH

Authors
  1. Deborah J. Bowen Ph.D.
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  2. Robert Robbins Ph.D.
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  3. Nigel Bush Ph.D.
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  4. Hendrika Meischke Ph.D.
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  5. Abi Ludwig
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  6. Jean Wooldridge MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah J. Bowen Ph.D..

Additional information

Deborah J. Bowen, Nigel Bush, Hendrika Meischke, and Jean Wooldridge, Cancer Prevention Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Robert Robbins, Information Technology, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. This research was supported by a grant (CA82894) from the National Cancer Institute.

Implications

Practice: As interventions like this one are evaluated, they can be put into practice to improve breast health behaviors by insurance systems, hospital systems, and provider networks.

Policy: Health care reform should be required to include evidence-based health communication strategies in its list of funded activities in new health care systems. Increasing cost-effective behaviors through tested health communication systems such as this one will improve health outcomes.

Research: Research can be conducted on the use of the Web as a delivery system for other types of health communications in a variety of diverse populations.

A randomized trial to test a web-based intervention on women’s breast health behaviors

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 1
figure 1

CONSORT 2010 flow diagram

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Bowen, D.J., Robbins, R., Bush, N. et al. Effects of a web-based intervention on women’s breast health behaviors. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 7, 309–319 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0439-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0439-z

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