Culture, community, and cancer - understandings of breast cancer from a non-lived experience among women living in Soweto

Sep 21, 2026

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Researching how women with a non-lived experience of cancer understand breast cancer and what shapes their health-seeking behavior, the study examines individual, sociocultural, and health system factors reported as drivers of delayed diagnosis in structurally vulnerable settings. Using a deductive approach with inductive thematic emergence, it investigates perceptions among 34 women in Soweto via six focus groups and follow-up interviews. Findings show awareness gaps, misperceptions, fear, stigma, and fatalism, alongside concerns about primary care being unwelcoming and insufficiently resourced, limiting screening uptake.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Introduction

Malope etal. BMC Women’s Health (2024) 24:594 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03431-2](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-024-03431-2) BMC Women’s Health RESEARCH Open Access Culture, community, and cancer: understandings of breast cancer from a non-lived experience among women living in Soweto Seemela D. Malope 1†, Shane A. Norris2,3† and Maureen Joffe1*† Abstract Background Individual perceptions, socio-cultural beliefs and health system factors are key determinants of people’s health seeking behavior and are widely cited as the causes of delayed breast cancer diagnosis among women from structurally vulnerable settings. Asking: “how do women with a non-lived experience of cancer understand the disease and, what informs their health seeking behaviors?”, we qualitatively explored, individual, sociocultural and health system elements from a conceptual model derived from the Socioecological, Health Belief and Cancer Stigma Frameworks, to understand perspectives of breast cancer in a South African urban community setting. Methods Using a deductive approach and allowing new themes to emerge inductively, we investigated phenomenologically, breast cancer perceptions among 34 women from Soweto, Johannesburg (aged 35–74 years) in 6 Focus Group Discussions. We then conducted 20 follow-up semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore novel themesand suggestions for increasing breast cancer screening. Results Findings revealed some awareness of breast and other cancers, but confusion and gaps in understanding of the disease, resulting in socio-culturally influenced misperceptions of risks, causes, and outcomes following treatment of breast cancer. This fueled perceptions of profound fear and stigma against people with breast and other cancers. These findings together with participant perceptions of primary healthcare providers being unwelcoming, under-resourced, and insufficiently trained to deal with breast cancer, resulted in women reporting being reluctant to participating in screening/early detection care seeking behavior. Women only accessed primary care when experiencing extreme pain or ill-health. Participants suggested as solutions for future interventions, the need for sustained community engagement, harnessing existing clinic and community stakeholders and resources to provide clear and understandable breast cancer information and encouragement for screening uptake. Conclusions Health literacy gaps surrounding breast cancer fuels socio-culturally influenced misperceptions, fear, stigma, and fatalism among women from Soweto. Women perceive primary care providers of having insufficient knowledge, skills, and resources to provide effective breast cancer screening services. Participants suggested the need for greater community engagement involving primary clinics and existing community stakeholders working †Seemela D. Malope, Shane A. Norris and Maureen Joffe contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Maureen Joffe[mjoffe@witshealth.co.za](mjoffe@witshealth.co.za) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the per

FAQs

What factors does the study identify as key determinants of health seeking behavior for breast cancer?

The study highlights individual perceptions, socio-cultural beliefs, and health system factors as key determinants that influence breast cancer health seeking behavior and contribute to delayed diagnosis.

How was the research conducted among women in Soweto?

The researchers used a deductive approach with inductive theme emergence, investigated perceptions among 34 women in six focus group discussions, and then conducted 20 follow-up semi-structured in-depth interviews.

Why do women in the findings report reluctance to participate in screening?

Confusion and gaps in understanding drive misperceptions of risks, causes, and outcomes, fueling fear and stigma. Participants also report that primary healthcare providers are unwelcoming, under-resourced, and insufficiently trained, leading to reluctance to seek screening or early detection care.

Sep 21, 2026

Upload by Eden