Black women and breast health: A review of the literature

AimIn the UK, it is known that screening inequalities exist involving ethnic minority groups such as Black women (Patnick, 2009). To date, there is limited UK data on Black British women and breast health awareness. Black British women appear to be an underrepresented group in breast cancer studies (Breast Cancer Care, 2004 and Breast Cancer Care, 2005). This literature review aimed to explore Black women’s perceptions of breast health and factors that influence breast cancer screening practices.MethodsA literature search for the period 1994 to September 2009 was undertaken using BNI, CINAHL, PubMed, OSH-ROM, PsyInfo, Google scholar, and Scopus databases. Key words used included: breast cancer, breast health, African American women, Black British women, black women, breast cancer screening, qualitative studies. Hand-searching was also done, and reference lists of papers were examined for relevant studies.ResultsBlack women hold a variety of views and perceptions on the risk that breast cancer poses. These perceptions are strongly related to existing knowledge, related stigmatization, spiritual and religious beliefs, all of which can adversely influence motivation to engage in self-breast examination and breast cancer screening.ConclusionUS based studies identified several influential factors: religion, educational awareness of breast cancer screening, breast health awareness. Breast health interventions and research are needed to increase breast health awareness in Black British women.