Do community health worker interventions improve rates of screening mammography in the United States? A systematic review.

Authors: Wells KJ, Luque JS, Miladinovic B, Vargas N, Asvat Y, Roetzheim RG, Kumar A.

Community health workers (CHW) are lay individuals who are trained to serve as liaisons between members of their communities and health care providers and services. A systematic review was conducted to synthesize evidence from all prospective controlled studies on effectiveness of CHW programs in improving screening mammography rates. Participation in a CHW intervention was associated with a statistically significant increase in receipt of screening mammography. CHW interventions are especially associated with improvements in rate of screening mammography in medical settings, urban settings, and in participants who are racially or ethnically concordant with the CHW.