Study Uncovers New Strategy To Boost Life-saving Cervical Cancer Screenings

Cervical crab is the fourth astir communal cancer among women globally, according to nan World Health Organization. It accounted for 660,000 caller cases and 350,000 deaths successful 2022.

Screening, on pinch early discovery and treatment, tin greatly amended a patient's chances of survival. But successful low- to middle-income countries, galore women are not being screened, and they're disproportionately dying from nan disease.

In caller investigation from Texas McCombs, Anima Nivsarkar, a doctoral student successful marketing, uncovers a powerful instrumentality to boost screening: trust. When messages are delivered by trusted and reliable sources specified arsenic doctors and peers, they summation nan likelihood that women will activity perchance life-saving exams.

The study began erstwhile a superior wellness attraction supplier successful India asked Nivsarkar - pinch Vedha Ponnappan and Prakash Satyavageeswaran from nan Indian Institute of Management Udaipur and Sundar Bharadwaj from nan University of Georgia - for thief encouraging women to get cervical crab screenings.

In discussions pinch section nonprofits, they recovered powerful societal barriers - taboos and misconceptions astir reproductive wellness - moreover erstwhile women knew that screening was available.

"It's 1 of nan cancers that is preventable, truthful then, what is it that is holding backmost women from really getting nan screening?" says Nivsarkar.

These interviews helped america uncover that it was chiefly nan societal stigma, nan sociocultural norms that existed successful these areas, that were holding backmost women from getting screened and taking complaint of their health."

Anima Nivsarkar, University of Texas astatine Austin

Doctors and hospitals typically trust connected people materials, specified arsenic infographics, to amended nan public. Nivsarkar's squad explored a much personalized shape of messaging: videos recorded by physicians and peers. They recovered that some types of connection carriers helped raise screenings much than printed accusation alone.

Effects were strongest, nan researchers found, erstwhile a communicator's connection matched their role.

• Using peers to present messages of empowerment and taking ownership complete one's wellness could summation screenings 36.5%, suggesting nan imaginable to scope an further 21 cardinal women successful India.
• When authority figures specified arsenic doctors aliases relatable sources specified arsenic peers explained nan risks of not getting screened, women were consenting to salary much for screening: capable that clinics could spend to surface 21% much women.

Although nan investigation focused connected a circumstantial assemblage and issue, it whitethorn person applications successful different wellness attraction contexts involving taste barriers, Nivsarkar says. Similar approaches mightiness activity for different kinds of stigmatized reproductive wellness services aliases successful communities wherever intelligence wellness screening encounters taboos.

The results situation nan strategy of depending connected infographics aliases nan specified proviso of actual information, Nivsarkar says. "Given that peer-empowering messages led to nan largest summation successful adoption, we urge nationalist wellness campaigns displacement toward leveraging adjacent power pinch culturally attuned appeals."