Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113037

Carol Estwing Ferrans, PhD, RN, FAAN¹, Barbara Akpan, MS, RN², Margaret Davis, MS, RN³, Aida L. Giachello, PhD¹, Timothy P. Johnson, PhD¹, Virginina Martinez, JD¹, Jennifer Parsons, MS¹, Dinah Ramirez, RN⁴, Catalina R. Ramos-Hernandez, MD¹, Richard Warnecke, PhD¹, and Marilyn Willis, MS, RN¹. (1) University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 S. Damen Avenue (M/C 802), Chicago, IL 60612, 312-996-8445, cferrans@uic.edu, (2) Health Care Consortium of Illinois, 12503 S. Winchester Avenue, Calumet Park, IL 60612, (3) Southside Health Consortium, 10 W. 35th Street, Chicago, IL 60616, (4) Healthy South Chicago, 9108 S. Brandon, Chicago, IL 60617

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors contributing to the diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer in African-American and Latina women. A community participatory model was used to conduct focus groups with Latinas (in Spanish and in English), African-American, and Caucasian women in Chicago. Cultural beliefs contributing to non-participation in mammography and delay in seeking medical evaluation after finding a breast symptom were identified for each group. Cognitive interviews with larger numbers of women have shown that these beliefs are commonly held. Differences in sources of health information also were identified among the groups, with the African-American and Latina women depending to a greater extent on social networks, rather than health care professionals and text-based media. Another difference was the use of stories to convey information, which was more prevalent in the African-American and Latina groups. In the stories, the strongest beliefs were based on experiences of people they knew personally. In addition, it was found that the health care system serving these women is ill-equipped to handle increased demand. Findings from each group will be incorporated into community-based interventions to promote early detection of breast cancer, both by addressing cultural beliefs and by advocating for increased capacity for diagnostic and screening mammography. The use of a community participatory model resulted in richer data with greater cultural saliency, through the active collaboration of community partners in all phases of the study. It also provided training for the community partners and increased the capacity to conduct focus groups themselves.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the presentation, the participant will be able to (
• list five cultural beliefs that contribute to late stage diagnosis of breast cancer for African-American women and Latina women, as well as identify the differences between the groups; (
• articulate three ways in which the cultural beliefs and the use of social networks could be incorporated into community-based interventions to promote early detection of breast cancer; and (3)describe the ways in which the community participatory model contributed to the quality of the findings and success of the study.

Keywords: Minority Health, Breast Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation