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“I Struggle with Breast Cancer and I Struggle with God”: Insights from African American Breast Cancer Survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

Recognizing that spiritual and religious beliefs are personal and vary within communities, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the influence of these beliefs on experiences with breast cancer care and social support among African American Christian breast cancer survivors.

Methods

Forty-seven African American breast cancer survivors participated in focus groups (n = 7) in three northeastern urban cities. We used thematic analyses to identify major themes.

Results

Three themes emerged relating to how spirituality influenced participants’ cancer journeys: (1) struggling with God, (2) reclaiming my power, and (3) needing religious social support. Participants described the rhythmic flow of their spiritual beliefs as they navigated their lived experiences during diagnosis, treatment, and post-treatment. Spirituality was intimately intertwined with their illness experience as they grappled with their health and well-being.

Conclusions

Participants used spirituality as an avenue to cope and navigate through their diagnosis and treatment. These spiritual relationships created “church families” and provided the survivors’ access to cancer support groups, financial support, and therapeutic support. Our findings support faith-based approaches to health promotion and call for more studies to understand the influence of religion on health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Kinesiology, College of Education and Human Development, Transdisciplinary Center for Health Equity Research, Texas A & M University, Gilchrist Building, 4243 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843-4243, USA

    Rahma S. Mkuu, Idethia S. Harvey, Erica C. Spears, Miryan G. Jira, Kenne’ L. Johnson, Tyra Montour & Janae Alexander

  2. Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, Institute of Child Health Policy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Rahma S. Mkuu

  3. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Edna Brown

  4. Department of Health Behavior and Health Systems, School of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA

    Erica C. Spears

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  1. Rahma S. Mkuu
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  2. Idethia S. Harvey
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  3. Edna Brown
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Correspondence to Idethia S. Harvey.

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Ethics Approval

The Institutional Review Board (e.g., IRB # H12-020) at the University of Connecticut approved all the research project procedures.

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All participants were read and signed their informed consent before the focus group.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Mkuu, R.S., Harvey, I.S., Brown, E. et al. “I Struggle with Breast Cancer and I Struggle with God”: Insights from African American Breast Cancer Survivors. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 9, 566–575 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-00986-w

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