Abstract
Background: There is a growing recognition of the role of men in reproductive health of women, and the benefits of including men in public health programs addressing women's health. Involvement of men has important implications especially within the context that men act as social gatekeepers and as powerful family members who enforce cultural practices, often to the detriment of women's health. However, there is a dearth of information about the role of men in promoting cancer prevention especially within immigrant communities. Objective(s): The main objective of this qualitative study was to explore the potential role of Somali immigrant men in healthcare decisions that may involve promoting breast and cervical cancer screening in their communities. The secondary objective was to explore knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cancer prevention while examining factors associated with barriers and proposed solutions to increase cancer screening in this underserved community.
Methods: We formed a community-academic partnership and used a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach to conduct 20 key informant Interviews and 10 focus groups with Somali men. The Key Informant Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed QSR Nvivo 10. Data were coded to identify main themes.
Results: Three quarters of the participants were 45 years and older with 85% (17) of them were married, and 55% (12) having attained a high school education or higher; 35% (7) of the participants had no healthcare insurance; 55% (11) attained high school graduate or higher level of education; 75% (15) of the participants have lived in Minnesota for more than 5 years. We identified three major themes; (i) Faith influencing the attitudes and beliefs towards cancer screening. (ii) The changing roles of men in a society that is known to be patriarchal. (iii) The migration effect on screening.
Conclusions: Given the low utilization of cancer screening services and the widening cancer screening disparity gap in the minority communities, involvement of men and religious leaders in cancer screening efforts for Somali communities is worth exploring for future interventions. With the diverse cultural and health seeking behaviors in immigrant communities, cancer screening programs must adapt to increase cancer screening rates.
Citation Format: Barrett P. Sewali, Rebekah Pratt, Ekland Abdiwahab, Kathleen T. Call, Kolawole S. Okuyemi. Understanding cancer screening service utilization by Somali men in Minnesota. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B93. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-B93
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