Factors influencing breast cancer screening among older Thai
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: Introduction to the research topics: Reducing the risk of breast cancer deaths requires early identification of women with breast cancer so treatment can begin when it is most likely to lead to a remission or cure. Unfortunately, some segments of the population do not take advantage of proven breast cancer screening opportunities such as breast self-examination (BSE), breast examination by a doctor (clinical breast examination), or x-ray examination of the breast (a mammogram). Asian women in general are among the least likely in the United States to participate in breast cancer screening activities. This is also true for older Thai American (TA) women in Southern California. However, there is very little information on why these women do not participate in breast cancer screening. The purpose of this study is to determine why older TA women in Southern California do or do not participate in breast cancer screening so strategies can be developed to encourage their participation.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Central hypotheses of the research: 
 
 
 
 The basic questions to be answered in this study are:
 
 
 
 1. What are the factors that encourage or discourage breast cancer screening among older TA women?
 
 
 
 2. To what extent are these factors present among older TA women in Southern California and how important are they in decisions about breast cancer screening participation?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 General methodology:
 
 Stage 1: 30 to 40 TA women over 50 years of age will be asked to participate in group interviews of 6 to 8 women to identify factors that encourage and discourage them from participating in breast cancer screening. Three to five focus groups will be conducted. The women participants will be identified by Thai Health and Information Services, Inc. (THAIS, Inc.) as being knowledgeable about the Thai community in the Los Angeles area. They will be asked whether or not they perform BSE, and whether or not they have had a clinical breast exam or a mammogram. Those who have participated in these screening tests will be asked what factors led them to decide to participate. Those who have not participated will be asked what factors have prevented them from doing so. They will also be asked to describe factors that may affect screening decisions by other TA women in the community.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Stage 2: Based on the information obtained in stage 1, a group of 8 to 10 of the women who participated in the group interviews will be asked to help develop a questionnaire about factors that encourage and discourage TA women from participating in breast cancer screening. This questionnaire will then be used in telephone interviews with about 350 TA women to see how widespread and how important these factors are in the TA population in Southern California. The information obtained from these phone interviews will be used to develop programs that increase encouraging factors and decrease discouraging factors in an effort to increase beast cancer screening participation in the older TA population.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Innovative elements of the project:
 
 The project will provide information on factors that encourage and discourage screening specifically related to the TA population, for which there is very little information. Involvement of members of the TA population in the development of the phone interview questionnaire and in subsequent programs to promote screening in this population is also an innovative approach to promoting earlier breast cancer detection in this group of women.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Community involvement: A selected group of older TA women who participate in the focus groups will be invited to form an advisory committee, which will review the focus group findings and assist in developing a questionnaire to be used in phone interviews to determine the importance of these factors in breast screening decisions in a larger sample of TA women in Southern California. They will also assist with strategies for recruiting phone interview participants. It is anticipated that the committee would later assist in the development of culturally-sensitive programs to promote breast cancer screening participation in among TA women based on the study findings.