Congress Abstracts 2006

73

CULTURAL BELIEFS CONTRIBUTING TO LATE-STAGE DIAGNOSIS OF BREAST CANCER IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN, LATINA, AND CAUCASIAN WOMEN. Carol Ferrans, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL; Barbara Akpan, RN, and Margaret Davis, MS, RN, Healthcare Consortium of Illinois, Chicago, IL; Aida Giachello, PhD, Timothy Johnson, PhD, Virginia Martinez, JD, and Jennifer Parsons, MA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL; Dinah Ramirez, RN, Healthy South Chicago, Chicago, IL; and Catalina Ramos-Hernandez, MD, Richard Warnecke, PhD, and Marilyn Willis, MS, RN, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Both Hispanic and African American women have higher odds ratios for diagnosis with later-stage breast cancer than Caucasian women. Women commonly delay in seeking medical care for three or more months after self-discovery of a breast symptom, and cultural factors play an important role.

The purpose of this study was to identify cultural beliefs contributing to the diagnosis of late-stage breast cancer in African-American and Latina women.

An inductive approach was used to identify cultural beliefs, using Strauss and Corbin's (1990) coding techniques.

First, cultural beliefs were identified, using a community participatory model to conduct four focus groups with Latinas (in Spanish and in English), African-American, and Caucasian women. Second, interviews with 117 women demonstrated that these beliefs were commonly held.

Cultural beliefs contributing to non-participation in mammography and delay in seeking medical evaluation after finding a breast symptom were identified. Four categories of cultural beliefs were identified (and compared) among the three ethnic groups: (1) incorrect ideas about breast lumps; (2) use of self-help techniques; (3) faith-based beliefs; (4) futility of treatment. 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.