title: Cervical cancer: barriers to screening in the Somali community in Minnesota.
abstract: This study examined barriers to and facilitators of cervical cancer screening among Somali immigrant women in Minnesota. We adopted the socioecological framework to illustrate screening barriers at multiple levels. We conducted 23 semi-structured key informant interviews and used a thematic exploratory approach to analyze the data. Barriers were classified into individual, community or health systems levels. Obstacles included lack of knowledge, religious beliefs, fatalism, fear, embarrassment, and lack of trust in the interpreters. Participants described a need for training of healthcare providers on issues surrounding Somali women's cultural practices and sexual health. Identifying individual, community, or health system barriers and addressing them concurrently may increase use of cancer screening services among Somali women. Future interventions need to address multilevel barriers with multilevel approaches to improve utilization of cervical cancer screening services in underserved immigrant populations in the United States.
authors: Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors: Rahel G
authors: RG
authors: Ghebre
authors: Barrett
authors: B
authors: Sewali
authors: Sirad
authors: S
authors: Osman
authors: Amira
authors: A
authors: Adawe
authors: Hai T
authors: HT
authors: Nguyen
authors: Kolawole S
authors: KS
authors: Okuyemi
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Joseph
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology*; D012998:Somalia / Q000208:ethnology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*