AMIGAS

AMIGAS stands for “Ayudando a Las Mujeres con Información, Guía y Amor para su Salud.” In English, this means “Helping Women with Information, Guidance, and Love for Their Health.” AMIGAS is a bilingual educational outreach intervention designed to help promotoras (community health workers) and other lay health educators increase cervical cancer screening among Hispanics who have rarely or never had a Pap test. CDC funded a randomized controlled trial that showed AMIGAS is effective in promoting cervical cancer screening (Pap tests) among Hispanics between ages 21 and 65 years.

AMIGAS is important because Hispanics have a high incidence of cervical cancer.

AMIGAS was—

• Designed for use in a variety of settings, including those with lower resources.
• Developed in conjunction with the community.

AMIGAS is a proven health education model that—

• Is built on the recommendation from the Community Preventive Services Task Force that one-on-one education increases Pap test use.
• Works with women who are experienced promotoras in their communities to deliver the education.
• Stresses how information and skills learned in the intervention will help women, their families, and their communities stay healthy.
• Provides culturally appropriate bilingual information.
• Uses naturally occurring social networks to recruit women.

AMIGAS contains several components, including—

• Administrator’s Guide: A booklet to help administrators decide if AMIGAS is the right intervention for their organization and how to use it. Several informational appendices are included for the Administrators Guide.
• Promotora Instruction Guide: Provides detailed steps for trained promotoras or community health workers on how to deliver the AMIGAS intervention.
• Bilingual Flip Chart: An illustrated document in English and Spanish that presents information about cervical cancer and the Pap test, as well as short stories about real women.
• Contact Sheet: A form for promotoras or community health workers that provides information about every woman who participated in the AMIGAS intervention.
• Promise to Myself: A personalized form that outlines the specific actions a woman has committed to towards getting a Pap test.
• Resource Sheet: A form that each program can use to share specific information about Pap testing facilities, hours, and local transportation.
• Evaluation Form: A form that allows promotoras or community health workers to gather feedback from women who have participated in the AMIGAS intervention.
• Handout: Additional materials provided to help inform women about cervical cancer and the Pap test and the AMIGAS intervention.
• Body Diagrams: Pictures of the female reproductive system and the Pap test.

AMIGAS is the result of collaboration of researchers and community members including—

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Texas Tech University Paul L. Foster School of Medicine
• University of Texas School of Public Health
• Center for Public Health Research and Evaluation at Battelle
• Colaborativo SABER (San Diego, California)
• Lorena Sprager and Associates, LLC of the Clear Language Group (Oregon)
• Nuestra Comunidad Sana (Our Healthy Community) from The Next Door, Inc.
• Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Yakima, Washington)

These researchers have years of experience working with the Hispanic community and have published several articles about their work on the AMIGAS intervention.

• Lairson DR, Chang YC, Byrd TL, Lee Smith J, Fernandez ME, Wilson KM. Cervical cancer screening with AMIGAS: a cost-effectiveness analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2014;46(6):617–623.
• Smith JL, Wilson KM, Orians CE, Byrd TL. AMIGAS: Building a cervical cancer screening intervention for public health practice. Journal of Women’s Health 2013;22(9):718–723.
• Byrd TL, Wilson KM, Smith JL, Coronado GD, Vernon SW, Fernandez-Esquer ME, Thompson B, Ortiz M, Lairson D, Fernandez ME. AMIGAS: A multi-city, multi-component cervical cancer prevention trial among Mexican-American women. Cancer 2013;119(7):1365–1372.
• Byrd TL, Wilson KM, Smith JL, Heckert A, Orians CE, Vernon SW, Fernandez-Esquer ME, Fernandez ME. Using intervention mapping as a participatory strategy: development of a cervical cancer screening intervention for Hispanic women. Health Education and Behavior 2012;39(5):603–611.
• Byrd TL, Chavez R, Wilson KM. Barriers and facilitators of cervical cancer screening among Hispanic women. Ethnicity and Disease 2007;17:129–134.
• Wilson KM, Orians CE. Considerations in recruiting underscreened women to focus groups on screening for cervical cancer. Health Promotion Practice 2005;6(4):379–384.
• Byrd TL, Peterson SK, Chavez R, Heckert A. Cervical cancer screening beliefs among young Hispanic women. Preventive Medicine 2004;38(2):92–197.