Perceptions of health promotion and cancer prevention among adults in working-class occupations and neighborhoods.
A social-contextual approach to cancer prevention among participants associated with the working class may result in behavior-change messages that are more relevant to them and contribute to a reduction in health disparities among classes. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of adults in working-class occupations and/or living in predominantly working-class neighborhoods that was designed to explore the circumstances influencing perceptions of health promotion, disease prevention, and cancer-risk reduction. Participants made only a weak connection between cancer prevention and general health-promotion behaviors. Results suggest that the complexity of communicating cancer-prevention messages with this audience may be compounded by their unfamiliarity with cancer prevention and their lack of recognition that certain behaviors may reduce cancer risk. Therefore, developing messages that consider the social context of participants' lives and link cancer prevention with health promotion, while maintaining cancer prevention as a distinct subcategory, may prove to be an effective education strategy.
Goldman
Roberta E
RE
Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. roberta_goldman@mhri.org
Barbeau
Elizabeth
E
Hunt
Mary Kay
MK
Acevedo-Garcia
Dolores
D
Emmons
Karen M
KM
Gagne
Joshua
J
Sorensen
Glorian
G
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012923:Social Class