摘要：Haitian women living in Miami, Florida, experience an increased risk of developing and dying from cervical cancer compared with women in other racial/ethnic minority and immigrant groups in the area. In response to this disparity, academic investigators from a local university-based cancer center and community leaders from Little Haiti, the predominately Haitian neighborhood in Miami, created Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), a campus-community partnership. We describe the partnership's effort to document the prevalence of lifetime and routine Papanicolau test use using community-based participatory research methods. Community health workers indigenous to the area recruited participants from various community venues throughout Little Haiti and administered informal, brief interviews to assess their screening practices. The results indicate that Haitian women are underscreened and underscore the importance of community involvement in study implementation. IN MIAMI, FLORIDA, HAITIAN women experience an increased risk of developing and dying from cervical cancer compared with other racial/ethnic minorities and immigrant groups in Miami. 1 The underutilization of routine Papanicolau test screening likely accounts, in large part, for this disparity 2 , 3 However, previous research has not successfully examined the Papanicolau test screening behaviors of this population because of the prevalent distrust of health research in Little Haiti. 4 To overcome such barriers, academic investigators from the University of Miami and community leaders from Little Haiti created Patnè en Aksyon (Partners in Action), a campus–community partnership. This partnership was formed in late 2004 through the collective efforts of university investigators and directors of Haitian community-based organizations (CBOs) who had worked together previously to address cancer disparities in Little Haiti. The CBO directors enumerated a list of other community leaders, including pastors, traditional healers, and activists, and approached those individuals to solicit their participation. Interested persons were invited to an inaugural meeting in which we collaboratively decided upon the group's scientific focus—to understand why Haitian women are disproportionately diagnosed with late-stage breast and cervical cancers. The partnership employs the methods of community-based participatory research (CBPR), which invites community participation throughout the research process. 5 The design of all partnership research initiatives, including the study described here, reflects the collective input of academic and community partners. 6 We sought to document the prevalence of lifetime and routine Papanicolau test use among ethnically Haitian women living in Little Haiti. The majority of Little Haiti residents were born in Haiti and emigrated more recently than did Haitians residing in other communities in South Florida. 7
