The social cultural context in which behaviors contributing to this health problem
The expansion of effective theory-oriented, culturally pertinent strategies to support cervical cancer interventions amongst underrepresented populaces is vital to the removal of cancer inequalities. Cervical cancer is more prevalent among the Latina in America with an incident of 13.2% as contrasted to 8.2% amongst White females. The mortality rate among Latino females is estimated at 40 percent higher than White females (Gurman & Becker, 2008). One victorious strategy to enhancing health behaviors along with screening of the cervical cancer amongst this cultural population has been the growth of interventions founded on sociologic model (PEN-3 model), which considers cultural beliefs, behaviors and attitudes and participation of healthcare educators. The specific group under investigation is the Latina women who are suffering from cervical cancer in the US (Byrd, Chavez & Wilson, 2007).
PEN-3 framework positions culture in the research of attitudes, behaviors, as well as health consequences. This framework positions culture at the center of enlargement, execution, and assessment of flourishing health strategies (Airhihenbuwa et al., 2009). It emphasizes on the role of culture as a linkage where individual acts and perceptions concerning health are influenced and defined. Latina cultural attitudes along with social values have implications on cervical cancer screening conducts as reported in many studies. Dignity, fatalism, as well as respect are attributes among the Latinas can impact the screening of the cancer of cervix (Zhou, Enewold, & Peoples, 2010). In addition, the Latinas can be less probable to look for screening cancer of cervix, comprehend the significance of the screening, get their screening outcomes, plus look for report on care as needed. Fatalism might correspondingly impacts screening, because a number of Latinas can consider that cervical cancer disease is not manageable. Furthermore, customary gender roles, which motivate some females to stay pure, tolerate distress, as well as be submissive to males, pooled with “machismo” that sets down males to be seen as authoritative. This may discourage Latinas from talking about sex plus sexual wellbeing (Garcés, Scarinci & Harrison, 2006). Thus, this dynamic can lead to Latinas feeling not as much of authoritative in their relations with spouses along with the healthcare providers. These gender roles as well can be damaging if men spouses are not comfortable with females going for gynecological tests. In addition, it has been established that low level of education and income are among the barriers among the Latina women for screening adherence, treatment along with the likelihood of survival (Byrd, Chavez & Wilson, 2007).
PEN-3 model’s component of cultural empowerment is an important towards understanding the culture towards developing the necessary approaches to empower them (Airhihenbuwa et al., 2009). To make screening as an intervention a culturally relevant, there is the need to identify cultural norms, which are believed to be fundamental in the Latina and can have a primary function in cervical cancer deterrence. Among the Latina, the significance of family is one of the fundamental Latina norms. Thus, family associates tend to depend on each other for sustenance when handling different problems (comprising wellbeing issues). Thus, the concept of family among the Latina also entails the extended family that is composed of blood relatives and intimate friends. This is specifically pertinent when handling migrants where when arriving to a fresh nation, Latinas tend to seek assistance from their co-nationals (Byrd et al., 2007).
Culture and Empowerment
In addition, being allocentric culture, Latinas are more likely to trust persons rather than their institutions. The Latinas tend to favor individual as well as person consideration plus look for relations, who are nurturing friendly, as well as reverential other than provoking. Provided with customary gender responsibility values in the Latina culture, Latina males tend to be overriding plus females tend to be passive to plus reliant on their spouses and other men. Through machismo, communication process that will target individual Latina women where understanding the cultural value. Understanding the cultural value could allow the empowerment of the Latina women devoid of exposing these women to some risks (for example, home violence); however, to candidly address the cultural significance among the Latina women in the US (Simard, Fedewa & Ma, 2012).
One of the components of PEN-3 model is cultural identity, where the cultural identity emphasizes the intervention, especially points of entry that can happen at level of an individual (healthcare employees and mothers, extended family members or neighborhoods (societies). The most outstanding cultural identity among the Latinas is desire and ambition to succeed. The desire and ambition to succeed is embedded on mastery problem-solving strategy towards negotiating life events that entails taking initiative, tolerance and contributing to one’s environment including health issues (Scarinci, Bandura, Hidalgo & Cherrington, 2012). This is an important cultural identity aspect that will ensure that women look for solutions to cervical cancer problem through seeking interventions. This is because the ambition and desire cultural identity aspect is a characteristic of cultural identity, which can reflect the capability to become an active agent in the adaptation process and significance of individual growth. The other cultural identity amongst the Latinas building relationship and the capacity to relate to family along with peers, which will be vital in promoting interventions approaches to tackle cervical cancer problem. The relationship building will be vital in allowing the Latinas women to develop social support networks during challenging periods and gain cultural knowledge, including educational and screening programs to prevent the disease (Scarinci et al., 2012).
The desire and ambition to succeed and relationship building will adequately provide point of entry intervention (that will offered by family and friends) for the Latina women looking for interventions for cervical cancer problem through desire to succeed and relationship building. Family relationship is a robust predictor of cervical cancer screening processes as it is attached to the cultural identity where having a man who is supportive to women’s health will be important in women’s participation in cervical cancer screening. Thus, the family (familiarismo) is among the primary cultural Latina values greatly depended on when handling challenges that include health problems like cervical cancer (Erwin et al., 2007).
English peer-reviewed were used in the study were critically reviewed to inform the PEN—3 model to develop the necessary interventions to prevent cancer of cervix amongst the Latinas women. The articles that were reviewed utilized the PEN-3 framework as a theory-based model to consolidate culture during the research of health behaviors, as well as incorporate cultural pertinent factors towards the advancement of necessary interventions for cervical cancer among women. This model was also utilized as an analyzing instrument, to filter through data along with text to define, delineate, and separate emerging themes (Flores & Bencomo, 2009).. Five electronic online databanks were searched from their beginning up to 2012, employing designated Boolean terms and key words that included Latinas/Latino, cervical cancer/human papilloma virus, women/woman, and intervention/program. The databases included: EBSCO Academic Search Premier; PubMed; ProQuest; CINAHL, plus PsychInfo. The search terms and key words gave more than 500 results that became important in the research. The information from articles was abstracted utilizing a homogeneous structure to document the essential intervention features plus findings. Thus, 10 peer-reviewed articles, which documented interventions tailored to improve screening of cervical cancer amongst Latinas over the age of 18 residing in the United States were reviewed. The ten peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria described 15 interventions. The identified interventions in the articles comprises mainly of educational programs along with proviso of screening.
Conclusion
The PEN-3 framework is an effective model in researching and developing the necessary interventions to prevent cervical cancer among Latina women. Family is an important cultural identity aspect that should be utilized by stakeholders in the US to reduce the incidence of cervical among women. Despite the efforts attained so far in preventing cervical cancer amongst Latina females, there is the need fore the development, implementation, as well as assessment of interventions in different regions, as well as up-and-coming Latina populaces that are all-inclusive in addition to improve screening.
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