Each month in our Healthwatch Essex Journal Club, one of our Research Ambassadors shares an article that they are interested in – giving our network a chance to read, reflect, and discuss together in our WhatsApp community. It’s a space for learning, questioning, and exploring research in an informal and supportive way.
In this month’s Journal Club, Research Ambassador Pravina shared an interesting article which explored the adaptation of the ‘Wise up to cancer’ intervention to increase UK South Asian women’s uptake of cancer screening. Here are the article details for anyone that would like to have a read:
Authors: Daisy Payne, Melanie Haith-Cooper and Nisa Almas (2021).
Title: Wise up to cancer’: Adapting a community based health intervention to increase UK South Asian women’s uptake of cancer screening.
Article Link: https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/3c496ef9-1b8b-4cb1-8687-76dd05c898ab/content
Pravina reflected on the value of this article to her own lived experience:
“As a South Asian woman myself, this main study I wanted to share is close to my heart; we are an example of one key ethnic minority community that are nowhere near as open enough as we should be about any potential health issues”- Pravina.
This was a great article which sparked a lot of conversation and interest from our ambassadors. As always, our ambassadors’ reflections demonstrate the value of coming together to explore health topics from different perspectives:
“I was particularly interested in the use of community health champions with similar ethnic backgrounds (‘cultural insiders’) to help deliver the intervention. It’s clear that these individuals were able to build rapport and trust with South Asian women receiving the intervention; so much so that other issues, such as domestic abuse, destitution and poor mental health were revealed during their conversations” – Molly.
“I would have loved to see this study link in with some cancer screening data to see whether the targeted intervention resulted in increased screening. This would have required linking with data held routinely by GPs and would have meant a sign time allocated for follow-up to allow for screening invites to have been sent and subsequently attended, but it would certainly be worthwhile” – Lorna.
“For me, this paper generally emphasises the importance of trust and relatability in delivering effective interventions. It reaffirms the idea that people cannot trust those they do not know—evident in how the community champions visited established groups multiple times before introducing the intervention and the resulting number of women who participated. Additionally, it highlights the critical role of language in health promotion. Language is not merely a medium of communication; it is a powerful tool for building trust and uncovering hidden health concerns… This perfectly captures how language can foster connection, recognition, and trust in health initiatives”. – Onyi.
“Thank you so much for sharing this insightful study. This study has helped build trust and made the women more open to talking about cancer screening and lifestyle changes. The study shows how important it is to make health interventions culturally appropriate and community-based to reach underserved groups effectively”. – Ivy.
“It highlights the impact of engaging with the right people, at the right time, in the right way for them. I found the process and themes identified insightful, and the article easy to read with the learnings clearly set out- making them easy to share and transfer”. – Sarah.
“There’s a really important point in the conclusion about the need to tackle the structural barriers to women’s accessing healthcare. I wonder whether/how the idea of community health champions might be embedded into primary care services as a more permanent feature of the local health and social care landscape. No doubt a financial and logistical impossibility but worth thinking about…” – Hattie.
These quotes reflect what our Journal Club is all about – sharing knowledge, asking questions and building confidence in reading and discussing research!
Our Journal Club is open to all our Research Ambassadors. If you would like to become a Research Ambassador or are looking for more information, please contact our Research Manager Dr Kate Mahoney at [email protected].
We are looking forward to next month’s article, which will be shared by Research Ambassador Ben.
Beth Pittuck,
Research Officer