Research has shown that African Americans experience higher overall cancer incidence and mortality rates and lower overall cancer survival rates than all other major ethnic populations (i. e. , Asian-Pacific, Hispanic, Native American, and White) in the United States [1]. One explanation for the disparity between African Americans and other ethnic populations in cancer incidence and mortality rates is lower use of printed cancer education materials [2].
The information in many printed cancer education materials is culturally irrelevant to African Americans. As a result, most African Americans do not receive the cancer prevention message from the printed cancer education materials [3]. Many factors related to culture that affect the health care needs of African Americans differ from factors of other ethnic populations [4]. A group's culture ultimately influences the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of individuals [5], which may in turn affect the way individuals respond to health care information [6]. Health care information that does not coincide with an individual's belief or behavior can be interpreted as insensitive and maladaptive [7]. When printed cancer education materials are culturally sensitive to the audience, they are more likely to effectively promote behavior change in members of the intended audience [8]. For this reason, it is important that printed cancer education materials for African Americans deliver culturally sensitive information that will effect positive behavior changes in members of the African-American community.

African-American Culture. The African-American culture consists of shared cultural patterns that bind African Americans together as an identifiable group who are able to live together and function with ease. African-American culture is the blueprint in which African Americans think, feel, and behave in society. The dimensions of African-American culture are spirituality, harmony, movement, verve, affect, communalism, expressive individualism, oral tradition, and social time perspective [9]. Printed cancer education materials intended for African Americans should accurately display African-American daily living habits, including housing, cultural artifacts, and communication systems.
This guide describes the following three major steps in developing culturally sensitive printed cancer education materials for African Americans.

1. Collect information about knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the group;
2. Apply the learned information to the development of materials; and
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the materials.