Communicating with Patients

Some health psychologists try to help patients comply with doctors' orders; others try to get patients to go to the doctor in the first place. In South Africa, black patients are more likely than white patients to be diagnosed with breast cancer only when the disease is advanced and difficult to treat. These women are generally poor and have little access to health care, but their personal view of the disease also has a strong effect on when they seek medical help (Bezwoda, Colvin & Lehoka, 1997).

Researchers interviewed black South African breast-cancer patients, asking them what they thought when they found a lump in their breasts. One-third were not upset at all and did not think that a lump, by itself, was a sign of disease. The rest thought that the lump was caused by an injury or a baby's suckling. These responses may sound strange, until you consider that only three of the nine ethnic black languages in South Africa have a word for cancer. Even patients who know the word do not always associate it with something that can spread through the body and requires special treatment. The patients do not lack intelligence or the motivation to care for their bodies: they lack information.