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OBJECTIVES: A community-based participatory research focus group approach was used to elicit attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about breast cancer and its treatment from African Americans community members.
METHODS: 503 participants were recruited from 15 of Chicago's predominantly African American neighborhoods on the South Side. Focus group sessions were audiotaped, transcribed, coded using Nvivo Software, and analyzed using Grounded Theory.
RESULTS: Several themes emerged from the focus groups which may contribute to the higher breast cancer mortality rate for African American women: mistrust of the health care system; the financial impact of cancer care and complications with health insurance; concern about exposure to environmental toxins; feeling discouraged from mammography and screening procedures; community reluctance to speak about cancer; and other life concerns considered more salient than health care.
CONCLUSIONS: Emerging themes indicate the manifestation of institutionalized, personally-mediated, and internalized racism within attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about breast cancer and its treatment. Findings suggest policy and practice strategies to reduce breast cancer mortality in African American communities.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of the session, a participant will be able to:
1. Identify breast cancer mortality trends for African American women.
2. Become familiar with community-based participatory focus group research methods.
3. Recognize insight gained from qualitative research unattainable by other methods.
4. Discuss possible mediating factors and pathways contributing to increased breast cancer mortality rates for African American women.
Keywords: Breast Cancer, Health Disparities
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a doctoral student and researcher at the University of Chicago Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research. I have been conducting the primary qualitative data analysis on the breast cancer focus groups described.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.