JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Prevalence of cancer data for Black Americans is monolithic and fails to consider the diverse cultures and backgrounds therewithin. For instance, African immigrants constitute a meaningful proportion of the foreign-born Black immigrants in the United States (42%), but the prevalence of cancer in the African immigrant community itself is unknown. Therefore, without accurate cancer prevalence data, it is impossible to identify trends and other key factors that are needed to support the health of African immigrants and their children. Moreover, it is impossible to understand how the culture and language of subgroups influences their cancer-related health behavior. While research in this area is limited, the existing literature articulates the need for culturally responsive and culturally tailored cancer education for African immigrants and their adolescent children. Existing projects demonstrate the feasibility of culturally responsive programming for adults; however, few projects include or focus on adolescents or children born to African immigrants. To best meet the needs of this understudied community, researchers must employ cultural competence alongside familiar, usable media. For adolescents, technology is ubiquitous thus, the creation of a culturally tailored digital intervention has immense potential to improve cancer awareness and prevention for youth and their community. However, more research is needed to address many of the existing research gaps and develop a rich understanding of the unique experience of cancer among African immigrant families.