Perspectives on cancer screening among Latino community members and internal medicine residents.
BACKGROUND
Latinos have lower rates of cancer screening, partially because of cultural beliefs that conflict with those of health care professionals. Moreover, established programs for training physicians in cultural competency often fail to incorporate input from the community.


METHODS
To explore beliefs about cancer and cancer screening among Latino community members and internal medicine residents. Three focus groups of Latino community members (n = 31) and one focus group of internal medicine residents (n = 9) were conducted to compare ideas regarding cancer and cancer screening.


RESULTS
We identified clear disconnects between residents and Latino community members regarding their understandings of cancer, ideas about risk and etiological factors, and barriers to screening. Notably, residents more often spoke of cancer in terms of risk factors, whereas Latinos attributed cancer to life circumstances and experiences.


CONCLUSIONS
The results from these focus groups will inform development of a community-minded cultural competency cancer education training program for medical residents designed to increase screening rates and improve satisfaction with care among Latinos.
Salas-Lopez
Debbie
D
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA.
Mouzon
Dawne
D
Marks
Jonnie
J
Kothari
Neil
N
Natale-Pereira
Ana
A
D000328:Adult; D003153:Community Health Services; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D054521:Cultural Competency; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D011314:Preventive Health Services