title: Consistency in attitudes across cancer screenings in medically underserved minority populations.
abstract: While a wide range of behavioral and psychosocial literature explores attitudes and beliefs towards cancer screenings, fewer studies examine attitudes across cancer screening types. We draw on quantitative and qualitative findings from a 4-year prospective study based at a community health center serving diverse, low-income patients. Methods included self-report surveys (n = 297), medical chart abstraction, and several qualitative methods with a subsample of participants. Participants included white, African-American, Vietnamese, and Latino patients who were diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, or both. Patients' attitudes (both positive and negative) towards cancer screening types were remarkably consistent across cancer screening types. These effects were stronger among men than women. Never having had a cancer screening was generally associated with more unfavorable attitudes towards all screenings. Qualitative interviews indicate the importance of information circulated through social networks in shaping attitudes towards cancer screenings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In a multi-method study of attitudes towards cancer screening among medically underserved patients in a primary care setting, we found that attitudes (both positive and negative) were remarkably consistent across cancer screening types.
authors: School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030, USA. shaws@email.arizona.edu
authors: Susan J
authors: SJ
authors: Shaw
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Vivian
authors: Kathryn M
authors: KM
authors: Orzech
authors: Cristina Huebner
authors: CH
authors: Torres
authors: Julie
authors: J
authors: Armin
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012938:Social Perception; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology