What Is The Right To Know Campaign and Why Is It
Needed?
Breast cancer is a major public health concern for all women,
including women with disabilities. Women who have disabilities
are just as likely as women without disabilities to have ever
received a mammogram. However, they are significantly less
likely to have been screened within the
recommended guidelines. The public health community
has used health communication messages and campaigns to increase
breast cancer awareness and encourage women to take steps to
help prevent breast cancer, yet few communication messages exist
that target women with disabilities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
conducted a study to explore the barriers to breast cancer
screening for women who have physical disabilities. We
discovered that the barriers include:
- Thinking, "It won't happen to me"
- Focusing on other health issues
- Difficulty with positioning while getting a mammogram
- Not knowing where to go for accessible screening
- Inaccessible facilities and equipment
- Healthcare provider's knowledge and attitudes
Women with disabilities also identified the lack of health
promotion messages and materials that reflect their unique needs
as a problem and requested that CDC address this issue.
As a result of this study, a family of health promotion
materials (e.g., posters, MP3 files, low-tech fliers, print
advertisements, and tip sheets) has been designed to increase
awareness of breast cancer among women with physical
disabilities and encourage these women to get screened.
Materials
share the tagline “Breast Cancer Screening. The Right To Know,”
and feature four women with physical disabilities who have
survived breast cancer.
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