Exploring beliefs about cancer among American Samoans: focus group findings.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate answers to the following questions among American Samoans: What is cancer? What causes cancer? And what can you do to prevent cancer?

DESIGN

Focus groups (four with women and four with men).

SETTINGS

Pago Pago and the Manu'a islands, American Samoa; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles, California.

PARTICIPANTS

80 self-reported Samoan men and women over the age of 18 years, selected through non-probability purposive sampling with help from Samoan community-based organizations.

MEASUREMENT

Qualitative content analysis of focus findings to identify themes.

RESULTS

The concepts that cancer was not a Samoan illness, that failure to follow fa'aSamoa (the traditional Samoan way of life) could lead to cancer, and that a return to fa'aSamoa could prevent cancer were the prevalent themes in the focus groups.

CONCLUSION

The value that Samoans place on fa'aSamoa, a traditional healthy lifestyle, provides insights into the design of future intervention programs aimed at improving cancer control in this population.