A project by The Nethersole School of Nursing at CUHK has reached out to more than 1,000 South Asian women in Hong Kong, promoting the purpose of cervical cancer screening and educating them on its critical role in detecting the city’s seventh most common cancer among females.

Since 2022, The Integrative Multicomponent Programme for Promoting South Asians’ Cancer Screening UpTake (IMPACT) has begun addressing language and cultural barriers that hindered the uptake of cervical screening within the ethnic minority. CU Medicine collaborated with more than 40 local non-governmental organisations and South Asian community centres to recruit 52 community health worker trainees, who became ambassadors for disseminating information about cervical cancer and screening services to the ethnic group, assisting them in making cervical cancer screening appointments, and accompanying them to these appointments.

In total, they engaged with 1,016 eligible women, resulting in a 75% increase in uptake within the community. The need for such initiatives is highlighted, particularly since 85% of the participants had never undergone cervical cancer screening.

As an exemplary showcase of community-academic-clinical partnerships in promoting public health, IMPACT is expected to have a ripple effect in reaching out to more South Asian women in Hong Kong.