Relationship of African-Americans' socioeconomic status to their perceptions of cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of African Americans' socioeconomic status to their perceptions of cancer. Maiman and Becker's (1974) Health Belief Model was adapted as the theoretical framework. Using this theoretical perspective, a descriptive study was designed to determine the relationship of African Americans' socioeconomic status to their perceptions of cancer screening and early cancer detection, perceptions of cancer risk factors, perceived susceptibility to cancer and cancer prevention. African Americans from a large church in an urban area of Maryland participated in the study. The perceptions subscales of the Cancer Awareness Inventory developed by Underwood (1992) was used for data collection. Additional questions were developed by the researcher to obtain additional information pertinent to African Americans: socioeconomic status, past experience with cancer, and demographic data. A total of 139 African Americans completed the questionnaires, of which 39 were male and 100 were female. Data from the questionnaires were analyzed using multiple regression. Participants in this study perceived themselves susceptible to developing cancer; believed that known and/or suspected activities as well as exposure to carcinogens may increase their cancer risks; believed engaging in recommended cancer preventive activities may decrease their cancer risks; believed that early cancer detection may discover cancer in the absence of symptoms; and believed that one could have cancer in the absence of symptoms. When a general multiple regression was performed, SES was related to three of the dependent variables (i.e., detection, risk and prevention). Age was unrelated to all five dimensions and gender was related only to the risk subscale. When age and gender were statistically controlled, SES was significantly related to all five dependent variables, although the control variables were significantly related only to the participants' perceptions of risk. The knowledge gained from this study will be useful in designing and implementing culturally relevant early cancer prevention and detection programs that take into account African Americans' perceptions of cancer.