Risk Communication Within Mexican-American Families

This study will examine what methods work best for encouraging Mexican-American family members to talk about their risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer. Within the Mexican-American community, the family culture provides an important setting in which individuals interpret and share their health information and formulate strategies to engage in health-promoting behaviors. The information from the study will be used to design risk communication approaches for Mexican-American households. Members of households with at least three adults 18 to 70 years of age who are part of the existing Mexican-American households recruited by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center may be eligible for this study. Participants are interviewed about their medical history, family history of disease, health behaviors, beliefs about disease and disease risk, experiences living in the United States, and relationships with family members and close friends. They are then provided information about their family risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and colon cancer, based on the information they provided in the interview. Two additional interviews are conducted over the telephone that include questions about how the participants communicate with family members about their risk and health behaviors.

* INCLUSION CRITERIA * Member household of existing population-based cohort of Mexican-American households recruited by the Department of Epidemiology at UTMDACC. The existing population based cohort consists of self-identified Mexican-Americans living in predominantly Mexican-American neighborhoods in the Houston area. All individuals in the cohort are 18 years of age or older and had to be able to complete a personal interview. * Household includes at least three adults (18 to 70 years of age) who are willing to participate in the study, where at least two of the household participants are related biologically and represent differing generations, and additionally in which one household participant is a spouse or partner of another household participant. * Ability for each participating household member to complete one in-home survey instrument via computerized assessment tool or personal interview and to complete two telephone interviews. * Ability of all household participants to speak either English or Spanish. EXCLUSION CRITERIA More than two household members are unable to complete the baseline questionnaire using a computerized assessment tool.