University of Miami, Haitian Community health workers team up to address breast cancer

Mar 11 2007

A collaboration between doctors at the University of Miami and members of the Haitian community in Southern Florida is attempting to address mammography screening and breast cancer among Haitian women living in the U.S., the Miami Herald reports.

Statistics show that 45% of Haitian women with breast cancer were diagnosed in late stages of the disease, compared with 44% of black women and 34% of white women.

Erin Kobetz, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, in 2004 established a community advisory board to address the issue, and local Haitian community leaders helped her determine how to study breast cancer among Haitian women and how to ask the women questions in a culturally sensitive manner.

Community health workers are trying to reach 1,500 Haitian women to ask them about mammograms and breast cancer.

According to preliminary findings, some women have received mammograms because they were ordered by their physicians, while others have never had a mammogram because it is not one of their main health concerns.

In addition, some women reported traditional beliefs about health care, including use of herbal medicine and the belief that illness is an expression of Voodoo.

Larry Pierre, executive director of the Center for Haitian Studies, Health and Human Services, said, "We just have to explain to people that just because you don't see a disease, you can't skip prevention."

Cuerna Blot, vice president of the Haitian American Nurses Association, said, "People have changed their minds about screening because of family and friends who have died from breast cancer. Women should not have to die of something they can prevent" (Valdemoro, Miami Herald, 3/8).