Minority patients discouraged from cancer screening by negative messages

A press release issued by the American Association for Cancer Research has some rather depressing news regarding cancer screening and minorities in the United States. The press release says,

"We have typically assumed that one of the best ways to motivate individuals is to point out disparities in health, but we may be having negative unintended consequences," said Robert Nicholson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at the St. Louis University School of Public Health. "Instead of motivating people who would be less likely to get these services in the first place, we may be driving them away."

As a result, "...constantly emphasizing the negative consequences of a lack of cancer screening among minorities can actually make them less likely to go for screening."

This finding was the result of a study involving 300 African-American adults. Researchers asked the study subjects to read one of four articles about colon cancer. The subjects were then asked some questions about what they felt the likelihood was of them getting screened for colon cancer.

The first article emphasized that colon cancer was an important problem for African-Americans. The second emphasized that outcomes for blacks with colon cancer were worse than for whites, while a third said that although outcomes for African-Americans were improving the improvement was less than seen among whites. Finally, a fourth article discussed how outcomes for blacks with colon cancer were improving over time.

If African-Americans read the article that said outcomes for blacks were improving over time, they were more likely to have a positive emotional response than if they read any of the other three articles. The article most likely to cause a negative response was the one that simply stated the problem.

Similarly, those that read the article about African-Americans making progress in outcomes for colon cancer were far more likely to want to be screened than those who read any of the other three articles.

Information like this is very important in disease research. Early detection of certain diseases, like colon cancer, means the difference between a cure and death in many cases. So, by understanding how information is processed in different ethnic groups, doctors and nurses can tailor their approaches in order to get the most positive responses.

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Tags: cancer blog, disease prevention, cancer screening, colon cancer, screening for colon cancer