Community Report: Understanding How the Lives and Experiences of South Asian Women Impact Participation in Cervical Screening

Abstract

This is a community report that summarize the main activities and outcomes of a Concept Mapping study that engaged South Asian service users and service providers in Ontario, to understand how the lives and experiences of South Asian women in Ontario impact their decisions to get screened for cervical cancer. Using this method of Concept Mapping, we identified and prioritized aspects in people's lives that could impact participation in cervical screening. Concept Mapping is a semi-qualitative method that moves beyond identifying themes, to also include participants in the interpretation of interrelationships amongst the themes, and discussion of the findings. Participants brainstormed a total of 210 statements and after idea synthesis, 45 unique and distinct statements were identified. Through sorting and map interpretation, participants identified and labelled six clusters amongst the statements: 1) Personal beliefs and misconceptions around cervical cancer; 2) Education and knowledge issues around cervical cancer; 3) Cultural beliefs and influences specific to sexual health; 4) Barriers to prioritizing uptake of cervical screening; 5) System/ infrastructure gaps or inadequacies; and 6) Lack of comfort and supportive relationships in healthcare. In the end we identified multiple points of intervention that go beyond the individual, to include community and policy. To address underscreening we need to design multi-level interventions that address the identified ideas and the interrelationships among them. This report summarizes the step-by-step series of Concept Mapping activities, the results that came out of it, and key recommendations for improving rates of cervical screening in Ontario.