Knowledge, attitudes and usage of cancer screening among West African migrant women

Olayide Ogunsiji, Lesley Wilkes, Kath Peters and Debra Jackson

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2013, vol. 22, issue 7-8, 1026-1033

Abstract: Aims and objectives To explore West African migrant women's knowledge, attitude and usage of cancer screening in Australia. Background Despite strong evidence that cancer screening saves lives through early detection and treatment, there is lack of empirical studies on West African migrant women's knowledge, attitude and usage of cancer screening in Australia. Design Qualitative naturalistic inquiry. Methods Twenty‐one West African migrant women who consented to participate in the study were recruited through a snowballing technique. These women were engaged in face‐to‐face audiotaped in‐depth interviews which lasted for about 90 minutes. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Results The following three themes emerged from the data: knowledge of cancer screening, attitude towards cancer screening and usage of cancer screening Irrespective of the women's place of birth in Africa, twenty of the participants had no knowledge of cancer screening prior to migration, and most had a negative attitude towards screening. Women who had given birth after migrating to Australia were more likely to have had cervical cancer screening. Women who had passed their child‐bearing years or had not presented to healthcare facilities for medical issues were more likely to be unaware of cancer screening. Conclusions Improved health promotion strategies that provide accessible information and education to West African migrant women regarding cancer screening are required to enhance the uptake of such screening in this migrant group. Relevance to clinical practice Nurses who encounter West African migrant women in their day‐to‐day practice have the opportunity to provide this group with education related to the importance of cancer screening.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12063

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:wly:jocnur:v:22:y:2013:i:7-8:p:1026-1033

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().