The Relationship between Healthcare Providers and Preventive Practices: Narratives on Access to Cancer Screening

Daniela Lemmo, Maria Luisa Martino, Anna Rosa Donizzetti (), Maria Francesca Freda and Daniela Caso
Additional contact information
Daniela Lemmo: Department of Humanities, Federico II University, 80133 Naples, Italy
Maria Luisa Martino: Department of Humanities, Federico II University, 80133 Naples, Italy
Anna Rosa Donizzetti: Department of Humanities, Federico II University, 80133 Naples, Italy
Maria Francesca Freda: Department of Humanities, Federico II University, 80133 Naples, Italy
Daniela Caso: Department of Humanities, Federico II University, 80133 Naples, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Cancer screening programs are public health interventions beneficial to early diagnoses and timely treatments. Despite the investment of health policies in this area, many people in the recommended age groups do not participate. While the literature is mainly focused on obstacles and factors enabling access to health services, a gap from the point of view of the target population concerns healthcare providers. Within the “Miriade” research–action project, this study aims to explore the dimensions that mediate the relationship between healthcare providers and preventive practices through the narrations of 52 referents and healthcare providers involved in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening. We conducted ad hoc narrative interviews and used theory-driven analysis based on Penchansky and Thomas’ conceptualization and Saurman’s integration of six dimensions of healthcare access: affordability, availability, accessibility, accommodation, acceptability and awareness. The results show that 21 thematic categories were representative of the access dimensions, and 5 thematic categories were not; thus, we have classified the latter as the dimension of affection. The results suggest trajectories through which psychological clinical intervention might be constructed concerning health, shared health decisions and access to cancer screening.

Keywords: preventive processes; healthcare access dimensions; providers’ narratives; cultural context sense-making; cancer screening promotion; theory-driven analysis; psychological clinical intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10942/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/17/10942/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:17:p:10942-:d:904617

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().