Table 1.

Prevalence of cultural beliefs among Latina breast cancer patients

Cultural beliefs	Percent of women who hold each belief (N = 181) %
Faith in God can protect you from breast cancer	48
If a breast lump is touched or pressed often, the lump will turn out to be breast cancer	30
If breast cancer is cut open in surgery, it will grow faster	28
The more you worry about breast cancer, the more likely you will get it	26
If you pray enough, sometimes breast lumps will disappear by themselves, without medical treatment	26
It doesn’t really matter if you get treated for breast cancer, because if you get it, breast cancer will kill you sooner or later	25
You only need to get a breast lump checked for cancer if it gets bigger	24
If you take good care of yourself, you won’t get breast cancer	21
You only need to get a mammogram if you find a problem in your breast	19
You only need to get a breast lump checked for cancer if it is painful	18
Women with large breasts are more likely to get breast cancer than women with small breasts	18
If a woman has enough faith in God, she won’t need treatment for breast cancer	16
Mammograms can cause breast cancer	13
If you don’t have breast cancer in your family, you don’t need to get mammograms	9
If you have a breast lump, a “natural remedy” can help to get rid of it	9
Three or more beliefs held (mean = 3.38; SD = 3.7; range 0–12 beliefs)	44