Increasing Vietnamese-American Physicians’ Knowledge of Cervical Cancer and Pap Testing: Impact of Continuing Medical Education Programs

Vietnamese-American women who regularly see Vietnamese-American physicians are less likely to obtain Pap tests, perhaps because of the physicians’ limited training in preventive medicine and the women’s discomfort receiving Pap tests from male physicians. To address this problem, during 2001–2003, the University of California, San Francisco’s (USCF) Vietnamese Community Health Promotion Project collaborated with the Vietnamese Physician Association of Northern California to organize 3 continuing medical education (CME) seminars on cervical cancer for association members. Experts gave lectures and answered questions about screening, diagnosis, and treatment to train physicians to identify risk factors, recommend Pap tests, and evaluate and conduct follow up of abnormal tests. To evaluate the seminars, we administered pre-and post-CME pencil-and-paper questionnaires. Data analysis employing the McNemar chi-squared test demonstrated significant changes in knowledge and understanding from pre- to post-CME in multiple areas. Results suggest that CME seminars can significantly increase Vietnamese physicians’ knowledge about cervical cancer diagnosis and treatment.