ASPO Abstracts
What social factors are most strongly associated with the reduced spread of breast cancer cultural beliefs among African American women?
Category: Culture and Cancer
Conference Year: 2021
Abstract Body:
Purpose:
African American women experience a disproportionate burden of breast cancer (BC)
morbidity and mortality. A contributing factor to this disparity are BC cultural beliefs. Spread
through social networks, these beliefs are often inaccurate, fatalistic in nature, and reduce
mammogram uptake. Some social factors may be more protective than others against the
spread of cultural beliefs among this population, yet these are little known. The purpose of
this study was to compare the influence of three social factors: BC supportive social network
size, BC survivor informational support, and primary care provider (PCP) informational
support among African American women to understand which factor was associated with
fewer reported BC cultural beliefs.
Methods:
This is a secondary analysis of the 2019-20 Offering African Survivors Increased Support
(OASIS) study, which assessed African American BC survivors' experiences with cancer
care. Study participants were: 1) identified as members of survivors' social networks, 2)
female, and 3) 50-74 years of age. Participants completed 60-90 minute surveys regarding
their cultural beliefs, BC supportive social network size, BC survivor informational support,
and PCP informational support. Multivariate regression analysis was used to assess
associations between social factors and cultural beliefs, after adjusting for demographics.
Results:
Among the 142 participants, 56% were age 50-62, 95% had a PCP, and 60% reported at
least one cultural belief. After controlling for age and SES, African American women who
reported larger BC supportive social networks were less likely to report cultural beliefs (OR:
0.95 [0.91-0.99], p=0.02). BC survivor and PCP informational support were not significantly
associated with BC cultural beliefs (OR: 1.01 [0.69-1.47], p=0.97; OR: 0.82 [0.37-1.83],
p=0.62).
Conclusions:
Women that reported larger BC supportive social networks reported fewer cultural beliefs,
potentially due to easier access to BC information and more exposure to individuals with
lived experiences supporting evidence-based information. These results suggest the
importance of community-level health education interventions that promote evidence-based
BC informational support to African American women's social networks.
Keywords: Cultural beliefs, breast cancer, social networks