Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention

British South Asian women’s uptake of cervical, breast, and bowel cancer screening is lower than the national average. ‘Wise up to cancer’ is a public health intervention, used with the general public, partly designed to increase cancer screening uptake. This work package from a larger study aimed t...

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Main Authors: Mel Haith-Cooper, Daisy Payne, Nisa Almas, Marcus Rattray, Halima Iqbal
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-12-01
Series:Critical Public Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09581596.2025.2520406
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author Mel Haith-Cooper
Daisy Payne
Nisa Almas
Marcus Rattray
Halima Iqbal
author_facet Mel Haith-Cooper
Daisy Payne
Nisa Almas
Marcus Rattray
Halima Iqbal
author_sort Mel Haith-Cooper
collection DOAJ
description British South Asian women’s uptake of cervical, breast, and bowel cancer screening is lower than the national average. ‘Wise up to cancer’ is a public health intervention, used with the general public, partly designed to increase cancer screening uptake. This work package from a larger study aimed to assess whether the ‘Wise up to Cancer’ intervention, delivered in different community settings, would increase South Asian women’s intention to access overdue screening. We conducted a mixed methods study to implement and evaluate ‘Wise up to Cancer’ with purposively selected women of Southeast Asian origin, aged 25–74 thus eligible for one or more screenings. Trained peers delivered the initial intervention (questionnaire) and researchers delivered follow-up telephone calls. Responses to closed-ended questions were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and free-text responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. ‘Wise up to Cancer’ increased women’s intentions to take up cervical and breast cancer screening but not bowel screening. Pharmacies were more successful in engaging women in the intervention than community/faith-based settings. These results can be used to inform tailoring of future interventions designed to increase cancer screening uptake in this population, but more work is needed to encourage the uptake of bowel screening.
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spelling doaj-art-5ee4d702bc0e4c8f8f6edc19458cb3b92025-08-20T03:30:14ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCritical Public Health0958-15961469-36822025-12-0135110.1080/09581596.2025.2520406Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health interventionMel Haith-Cooper0Daisy Payne1Nisa Almas2Marcus Rattray3Halima Iqbal4Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKFormerly Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKFormerly Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKFaculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKFormerly Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, UKBritish South Asian women’s uptake of cervical, breast, and bowel cancer screening is lower than the national average. ‘Wise up to cancer’ is a public health intervention, used with the general public, partly designed to increase cancer screening uptake. This work package from a larger study aimed to assess whether the ‘Wise up to Cancer’ intervention, delivered in different community settings, would increase South Asian women’s intention to access overdue screening. We conducted a mixed methods study to implement and evaluate ‘Wise up to Cancer’ with purposively selected women of Southeast Asian origin, aged 25–74 thus eligible for one or more screenings. Trained peers delivered the initial intervention (questionnaire) and researchers delivered follow-up telephone calls. Responses to closed-ended questions were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and free-text responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. ‘Wise up to Cancer’ increased women’s intentions to take up cervical and breast cancer screening but not bowel screening. Pharmacies were more successful in engaging women in the intervention than community/faith-based settings. These results can be used to inform tailoring of future interventions designed to increase cancer screening uptake in this population, but more work is needed to encourage the uptake of bowel screening.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09581596.2025.2520406Public health interventionBritish South Asian womencancer screeningcommunity groupspharmaciesfaith-based settings
spellingShingle Mel Haith-Cooper
Daisy Payne
Nisa Almas
Marcus Rattray
Halima Iqbal
Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
Critical Public Health
Public health intervention
British South Asian women
cancer screening
community groups
pharmacies
faith-based settings
title Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
title_full Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
title_fullStr Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
title_full_unstemmed Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
title_short Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
title_sort supporting cancer screening uptake in south asian women the wise up to cancer public health intervention
topic Public health intervention
British South Asian women
cancer screening
community groups
pharmacies
faith-based settings
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/09581596.2025.2520406
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AT marcusrattray supportingcancerscreeninguptakeinsouthasianwomenthewiseuptocancerpublichealthintervention
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