The Cancer Clear & Simple Story: Developing a Cancer Prevention Curriculum for Rural Wisconsin Through a Community Partnership

To address rural cancer disparities, the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center launched a rural cancer project through its Cancer Health Disparities Initiative (CHDI) in 2010. With support from the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) National Outreach Network, CHDI conducted an assessment of rural counties and partnered with Adams County to implement a collaborative cancer education project. Together CHDI and Adams County partners selected an evidence-based educational curriculum, Understanding Cancer, as a basis for local adaptation for use with rural Wisconsin communities. The new curriculum, titled Cancer Clear & Simple (CC&S), consists of three modules: (1) cancer basics, (2) cancer prevention, and (3) cancer screening. CC&S has also been culturally tailored for African American and Latino populations. The adaptation utilized community involvement throughout a multi-step process to ensure cultural appropriateness. The process included materials selection, translation, conceptual adaptation, visual adaptation, and validation with target audiences. All adaptations of the curriculum incorporate health literacy principles and is designed to build knowledge and improve health-related decision-making around lung, colorectal, skin, breast, cervical, and prostate cancer. Current efforts seek to (1) increase the evidence of CC&S’s effectiveness through additional research, (2) expand its use by new audiences, and (3) adapt it into a web-based platform featuring a cancer prevention serious game.