Communication strategies to reduce cancer disparities: Insights from African-American mother-daughter dyads

Abstract

Introduction: Mothers and daughters share a powerful and unique bond, which has potential for the dissemination of information on a variety of women's health issues, including the primary and secondary prevention of breast and cervical cancer. This study presents formative research from a long-term project examining the potential of mother-daughter communication in promoting cancer screening among African American women.

Method: Thirty-two mother-daughter pairs (N = 64) completed orally administered surveys regarding their cancer knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, and barriers to care. This study compares the attitudes and beliefs of low-income, urban, African American mothers and their adolescent daughters regarding cervical and breast cancer screening.

Results: Both mothers and daughters had fairly high levels of knowledge about breast and cervical cancer. In addition, there was a high concordance rate between mothers' and daughters' responses, suggesting a potential sharing of health knowledge between mother and daughter.

Discussion: These results have implications for selecting communication strategies to reduce health disparities, and support that the mother-daughter dyad could be a viable unit to disseminate targeted screening information. (PsycINFO Database Record