Racial Differences In Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors And Beliefs In Urban Public School

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in African-American women. Studies have reported that African-American women with breast cancer are more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage of the disease and have a higher mortality rate than White women. Despite this, African-American women are less likely than White women to avail themselves of the benefits of screening mammography. This is most often attributed to lack of education, lack of access, and low socioeconomic status. However, it has been repeatedly shown that when socioeconomic, educational, and logistic barriers are minimized, African-Americans continue to underutilize these screening procedures. In this study, breast cancer screening behaviors and the factors that influence those behaviors are measured by means of a survey questionnaire distributed to members of a defined population of African-American and White women with comparable levels of education, health care access, and socioeconomic status. This report describes the background, objectives, and procedures of this study, and details the work carried out in Year 01, including selection of the sample, pilot testing, finalizing materials and procedures, creation of the project database, hiring of personnel. and preliminary mailings.