Table 2.

Summary of relationship between main and cross-cutting themes^a

Cross-cutting themes	Main themes
	Beliefs about cancer	Risk reduction in daily life	Participation in screening
Ethnic identity	Aware of traditional views Mistrust of health promotion messages	Aware of ‘healthy lifestyle’ messages Activities with children and animals	Belief that community uptake is low Screening outside NHS (e.g. abroad (Roma only) or via private medical services in UK (Showpeople only))
Gender roles	Men are stoical about illness Men and women do not discuss private health matters	Women provide meals Women and men’s exercise is highly gendered	Women likely to attend screening Men unlikely to attend
Fatalism	Traditional cancer fatalism	Doubt whether prevention is possible	Men likely to await symptoms
Fear of being shamed	Tradition that cancer is taboo	Low health literacy	Exposure of body contravenes privacy (Gypsy/Travellers only)
Social and economic factors	Low literacy levels Language barriers (Roma only)	Expectation of early morbidity Awareness of risk in work and living conditions	Lack of familiarity with UK screening system (Roma only)

^aThemes apply to all ethnic minority subgroups unless specified