Table 3 Beliefs about cancer and CRC
From: Decision-making on colorectal cancer screening in Curaçao - interviews with the target population
Theme | *Quote | *Respondent |
|---|---|---|
Common | Q01. Interviewer: “You said you are accustomed to it, what do you mean?” Respondent: “Thus hearing about cancer. But you know, back in the days, they would whisper, they have cancer. Nowadays, no, I have cancer. It has become something a little more normal.” | R05, male, 70 years of age, low education level |
Suffering | Q02. “Sometimes I feel treatment…you have to go through a lot. And I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to see others suffer.” | R03, female, 68 years of age, intermediate education level |
Death | Q03. Interviewer: “When I say colon cancer, what comes to mind?” Respondent: “Uh, getting seriously ill. That is what comes to my mind and…relatives…aunts and grandmothers that have already died… because of cancer.” | R17, male, 50 years of age, intermediate education level |
Q04. Interviewer: “What is the first thing that you think about when I say colon cancer?” Respondent: “I’m going to die tomorrow.” Interviewer: “How come?” Respondent: “I don’t know. Uhm, well, because the cancer, from the moment you hear about cancer, you think you won’t be here much longer.” | R21, male, 58 years of age, low education level | |
Unknown, unpredictable | Q05. “Well, because uhm, the way they talk about cancer, so it’s not something that you feel, but it’s something that presents itself.” | R18, female, 72 years of age, intermediate education level |
Unpredictable | Q06. “…it can go different ways, right, as I understood.” | R11, male, 63 years of age, high education level |
Death, Recurrence | Q07. “Maybe because I have acquaintances who have died and stuff like that. Recently…I have a sister-in-law in Aruba and…well…she found out she has breast cancer. She had to do a lot of chemo and all that. And it still turned out that she needed to be operated on.” | R03,female, 68 years of age intermediate education level |
Shame, Fear | Q08. “A lot of people are afraid, ashamed. Yes, as I said if it was back in the days, I would have been ashamed as well to say: “no, I have cancer”, you know? It makes you ashamed.” | R05, male, 70 years of age, low education level |
Taboo | Q09. “If I look at how the Curaçaolean perceives certain illnesses that are taboos, that they hide certain illnesses, even COVID. If you get COVID, you hide that you got COVID or that you have cancer…you hide those….” | R08, male, 72 years of age, high education level |
Taboo, Fear | Q10. “In Curaçao it is as if, I don’t know if it is taboo, fear or what it is but unfortunately there is a large group of the population who do not dare to take that step. They would rather, uhm, keep it a secret until unfortunately maybe a family member or someone else discovers something and then it’s too late.” | R04, male, 54 years of age, intermediate education level |
Fear | Q11. “Some people [are] scared of different things. Maybe they do not want to know that they have something.” | R16, female, 67 years of age, intermediate education level |
Q12. “They don’t want to hear anything bad. They don’t want to hear that I have it or that there is something or even when they hear it, because theres that also, they keep it to themselves.” | R06, female, 56 years of age, intermediate education level | |
Q13. “Sometimes it’s just the fear. The fear that a person has, [it] makes them….maybe they don’t feel well, but the fear to hear the truth or whatever or maybe they suspect…They will stay years without looking into the matter.” | R03, ,female, 68 years of age intermediate education level | |
Q14. “I think fear of knowing, to hear something that is not good.” | R13, female, 61 years of age, intermediate education level | |
Q15. “Let me tell you, cancer in general, the moment you hear cancer, you get goose bumps. So you get a lots and lots of shivers.” | R07, female, 58 years of age, high education level | |
Q16. “I can- even though I tell you…really sincerely there are moments I have…I have like a…let’s say a fear you know…of the result. If I participate and the result says “Hey, you have cancer.” Damn…I’m very scared of that.” | R08, male, 72 years of age, high education level | |
Fear, Machismo | Q17. “I think men are more cowardly than women.” | R18, female, 72 years of age, intermediate education level |
Machismo | Q18. Respondent: “They say always men are the ones that hide the sickness, so I always hear that. Men do not like to hear they are sick, they don’t tell people they are sick in any case.” Interviewer: “And what do you think that is rooted in?” Respondent: “I would have to say maybe it’s the mentality they have, they feel they are strong, they are always strong and they do not want to know they are weak. They don’t want to face weakness, weakness- sickness is a weakness. ‘I’m a man and so I’m not afraid of anything’.” | R16, female, 67 years of age, intermediate education level |
Susceptibility | Q19. “My father passed away in October, but a few years ago he had a bleeding in his intestine. So I know. I experienced that process in the hospital, what that can be like for someone. The intestine isn’t something that you want to mess around with, it’s an important part of life… So I had my own interest in this research.” | R17, male, 50 years of age, intermediate education level |