Reducing the Rate of Late Stage Breast Cancer Through Effective Health Communication: An Opinion Piece

Abstract

Purpose: Health and illness are traditionally characterized and treated differently across various ethnic groups, which encourages American health systems serving these diverse populations to explore culturally competent and safe ways to effectively reduce illness within such populations. Certain ethnic groups of women in the United States (US) bear greater risk of late stage breast cancer because of various circumstances, which include but are not limited to a lack of insurance or underinsurance and discomfort with and/or resentment toward the US healthcare system. The dominant culture and the social aspects of the modern American health system often and most favorably serve the European American population as compared to the non-European American population. When non- European American female patients are given the opportunity to understand, afford, and adhere to breast cancer prevention techniques, as a result of culturally competent and safe health communication, there is greater potential to control healthcare spending and costs, improve breast cancer outcomes and risks, and produce healthier female populations. This narrative explores communication routes that practice cultural sensitivity and foster cultural safety whilst providing healthcare to non- European American populations, so as to help reduce the rate of late-stage female breast cancer in the US.