We are working on adapting an educational bowel cancer screening intervention to the needs of South Asian Hindu communities. We will be conducting a series of focus groups with community members and interviews with healthcare professionals to understand their perspectives and gather their feedback.
Background
Bowel cancer screening uptake rates tend to be much lower in individuals of South Asian ethnicity compared to the White British population – while no specific nationwide data on ethnicity and uptake is available, academic studies and some local and regional sources indicate the figure is approximately about half the level seen in people of White British ethnicity. The impact of lower uptake contributes to avoidable inequalities in cancer outcomes faced by ethnically diverse communities. Academic studies indicate that within South Asian communities themselves, there are further variations in uptake depending on religion with Hindus having somewhat higher uptake than Sikhs and Muslims. This indicates a range of factors influencing participation rates, with each subgroup facing a combination of shared and population-specific barriers and facilitators. There is very little research on the specific needs of South Asian Hindus in relation to bowel cancer screening.
Research highlights the value of culturally tailored health interventions as solutions to improve participation rates. In our previous work, we evaluated a culturally adapted, faith-placed educational intervention aimed at South Asian Muslim communities and found evidence it improved awareness, understanding and uptake of screening. We want to adapt this intervention to suit the needs of Hindu communities.
The main purpose of this study is to understand what adaptations are needed to tailor an educational intervention to the needs of South Asian Hindu communities. We want to understand the perspectives of both members of the public and clinicians of Hindu heritage. We also want to explore perceptions, barriers and facilitators of engagement with bowel cancer screening among Hindus. This project is linked to our work on “The evaluation of the British Islamic Medical Association intervention for bowel cancer screening in the Muslim community in the East of England” (PEDHSC13).
Project Aims
- The main purpose of this study is to understand what adaptations are needed to tailor an educational intervention to the needs of South Asian Hindu communities.
- To understand the perspectives of both members of the public and clinicians of Hindu heritage. We also want to explore perceptions, barriers and facilitators of engagement with bowel cancer screening among Hindus.
Research questions
- What adaptations are needed to make an educational intervention culturally relevant and acceptable to South Asian Hindu communities?
- What are perceived barriers and facilitators of South Asian Hindus’ engagement with the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme?
Project Activity
- The qualitative study will be conducted both online and in-person within the East of England in collaboration with our community partners, One Vision, who are a charity supporting underserved communities living in Hertfordshire.
- We will conduct 3 focus groups with members of Hindu communities and semi-structured interviews with South Asian Hindu healthcare professionals.
Anticipated or actual outputs
Our goal is to gather community feedback and insights that would allow us to adapt an educational intervention to make it culturally relevant, acceptable and accessible for Hindu communities.
Who is involved?
- Professor Daksha Trivedi, PI, University of Hertfordshire
- Dr Claire Thompson, University of Hertfordshire
- Reena Masrani, University of Hertfordshire
- Emilia Tylenda, University of Hertfordshire
- Dr Salman Waqar, Imperial College London
- Dr Adam Wagner, University of East Anglia
- Dr Rory Cameron, University of East Anglia
- Dr Jyothika Kumar, Health Innovation East
- Ben Jackson, Health Innovation East
- Enoch Kanagaraj, One Vision
- Priyanka Gandhi, One Vision
- Shivani Gadhia, One Vision
Contact
Daksha Trivedi, d.trivedi@herts.ac.uk
