The American Cancer Society ( ACS) estimates that more than 40,000 women will die in the United States this year as a result of breast cancer.

Meanwhile, more than 178,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, the society says in a statement published recently.

One way to battle these numbers is through increased information sharing and use of early detection methods, said a new study by the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU).

The study found that spirituality might play an important role in achieving this, particularly for African-American women.

"Spirituality has been found to be an important cultural factor for African-American women thinking about their health, so we evaluated its impact on breast cancer information processing," said Glenn Leshner, associate professor of radio-television in MU's School of Journalism.

"We found that spirituality positively affected African- American women's willingness to talk about breast cancer, pay attention to information about breast cancer and engage in preventative measures," the researcher added.

Leshner and other researchers studied the effects of spiritual locus of control by conducting surveys in 11 U.S. cities. Then they analyzed the 446 completed surveys (240 from Caucasian women, 206 from African-American women). Results showed that for African- American women, spirituality had a positive effect on talking about cancer and paying attention to breast cancer messages in the media. For Caucasian women, spiritual locus of control played no role in paying attention to breast cancer information.

The study indicated that when a breast cancer prevention message is designed for African-American women, health communicators should consider how to positively utilize the role of spirituality in the women's health message processing.

This perception seems to encourage African-American women to seek more information and talk about breast cancer to get emotional support and helpful advice," Leshner said.

Although it is less important for most Caucasian women, this study suggested that spirituality can be an important part of learning about and coping with breast cancer for African-American women.

The study was published in the latest journal Integrative Medicine Insights.

Source: Xinhua