Dietary intake to reduce cancer risk among African American women in public housing: do sociodemographic factors make a difference?

Objectives: This study investigates the dietary intake of African American women in public housing as related to cancer risk and explores the sociodemographic factors that hinder healthy dietary intake in this population.

Design: Demographic and dietary data for this cross-sectional study were collected as part of a Breast Health Education Study. Trained interviewers conducted face-to-face interviews with study participants to assess the frequency of consumption of specified food items.

Inner-city African American women who failed to receive cancer screening following a culturally-appropriate intervention: the role of health insurance.

Culturally-appropriate health promotion programs are thought to be more effective among minority groups than those designed for the population at large. We investigated factors associated with failure to obtain cervical and breast cancer screening among inner-city African American women who received a culturally-appropriate educational intervention. Women who completed the intervention, but did not obtain a Pap smear, a clinical breast examination, and/or a mammogram at follow-up were compared with those who did obtain these tests.