Social Support and Breast Cancer Control Among Latinas
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: While early detection and treatment are essential in decreasing the rates of cancer-related deaths among minority populations, many cancers continue to be diagnosed at more advanced stages. If the medical community seeks to change this, it must take steps to understand the factors that contribute to individual health-seeking behaviors. Studies suggest that having strong social supports in place can help an individual’s psychological adjustment to a stressful medical situation and that psychological well-being directly influences health-seeking behaviors. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The project will address the socio-cultural, behavioral and psychological issues relevant to breast cancer in a minority population of women. It will look at the way in which Latinas, who have been diagnosed with a breast abnormality suspicious for cancer, define and use social support during the period in which they are undergoing treatment and awaiting a final diagnosis. The project will focus on Hispanic women (Hispanics currently represent the largest ethnic minority group in California). In addition to developing a better understanding of the Latina’s experience, a second aim of the project is to develop a culturally and language appropriate instrument to measure social support and psychological well-being in this population of women. This is important because previous efforts, using existing instruments, to assess quality of life aspects such as social support in Hispanic populations have proven extremely difficult. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Information on the women’s experiences will be obtained through the use of face-to-face interviews. The interviews will focus primarily on the women’s understanding, need for, and use of social support, how social support impacts their psychological well-being, and how the two factors affect their health seeking behaviors. The data collected will be organized in terms of common themes that arise from the groups and interviews. Those themes will be used to develop an instrument to measure social support in this population of women. The instrument will then be tested on another sample of women from the same ethnic backgrounds with the same medical conditions.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The immediate benefits of the project include: 1) a better understanding of the effects of social support and psychological well-being on positive health-seeking behaviors in Hispanic women with a potential breast cancer diagnosis; and 2) the availability of a culturally appropriate instrument to measure social support and psychological well-being in this population of women. The long-term benefits include the development of interventions aimed at facilitating the use of underutilized social support networks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The ability to maximize the use of available resources can positively influence psychological well-being and health-seeking behaviors. These will hopefully translate into earlier detection and treatment of a potentially deadly disease.