"Because I want her to be alive:" Young girls' cervical cancer knowledge in South Africa and willingness to share that information with their mother

Despite a myriad of educational programs, screening campaigns, and advancements in cancer therapy, cancer disparities continue to exist in underserved populations. Incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer in low-income women remain high and there is a significant lack of knowledge about the disease and the need to get screened. We conducted in-depth interviews with 157 randomly selected mother-daughter pairs (N=314) in a low-income, urban neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa to examine the mother-daughter relationship, cervical cancer knowledge, and the potential of daughter-initiated advice. 91% of daughters said they had never heard of a test that can be done to check for cervical cancer or cancer of the womb and 92% stated that their mother had never talked to them about cervical cancer. However, 82% of daughters said if they learned about cervical cancer, they would be willing to give their mother advice about it. In response to the question as to why they would give their mother advice about cervical cancer, 69% said it is important to provide their mother with life-saving, cancer screening information, 10% said to provide assistance such as identifying symptoms or providing emotional support, 10% said they needed more information or confidence to share such information and 8% said they felt a sense of responsibility to share such information. The emotional need of daughters to share cancer information with their mothers suggests that by educating daughters about important health issues, they may serve as valuable conveyors of health information, particularly about cervical cancer, to their mothers and even to the family.