Features
Prof Turns Research Eye to Women's Health Issues
Does what you know about a disease change what you think?
BY TERESA PITMAN
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| Prof. Paula Barata aims to learn how feelings about cervical cancer affect screening. Photo by Martin Schwalbe |
Doctors give us advice on how to be healthy: eat more vegetables, get more exercise, get your flu shot. TV ads remind us about the importance of regular checkups. But what happens when our knowledge about a particular disease changes radically? How does that affect the advice we follow?
Prof. Paula Barata, Psychology, who joined U of G this summer, is exploring this issue through her research on women's health, particularly the prevention of cervical cancer. It's an interest she developed while doing post-doctoral work at the University of Toronto and the Women's Health Program of the University Health Network after completing her PhD in applied social psychology at the University of Windsor.
“The average person's understanding of the causes of cervical cancer has shifted over the past few years,” she says.
Although medical experts have known for some time that this type of cancer is almost always caused by a virus called HPV that is sexually transmitted, that information was rarely mentioned by doctors to their patients or highlighted in media stories about cancer, she says. Most people seemed to assume that the cause was unknown and the best strategy was to go for regular Pap tests to detect problems early.
But the development of a vaccine against several types of HPV — including those most likely to cause cancer — has changed all that. Advertising and articles about the vaccine stress that it needs to be given to girls before they become sexually active, she says, and that information highlights the sexually transmitted nature of the infection.
“I'm interested in knowing if this information changes how women feel about this disease and if it affects cervical screening,” says Barata. “Do women who develop cancer of the cervix feel ashamed or blame themselves now that they understand it is caused by a sexually transmitted virus? Will women continue to get a regular Pap test, which remains important even after being vaccinated?”
Another question she's tackling involves the desirability of alternative ways of testing for HPV.
“Our understanding of the role of HPV in cervical cancer has opened up new technologies. A simple test women can do at home to learn if they've been infected with HPV is now possible. The question is, would women use it?”
The responses Barata obtained when she actually surveyed women varied considerably. Some were enthusiastic about the idea. Others felt strongly that this kind of test would not be as reliable as the annual Pap test they were accustomed to; they preferred the yearly trip to a doctor's office.
“This helps us understand that perhaps there are specific groups of women who might find one approach better than the other,” she says.
Barata has also studied another issue that affects women's health: domestic violence.
“My research involved Portuguese women living in Canada, their perceptions of abuse, and how that influenced whether or not they'd seek help through the health-care system,” she says.
Her study found significant differences between first-generation and second-generation women in what they described as abusive and in their likelihood of seeking help.
She did, however, discover that the first-generation women she interviewed, although they might not have used the word abuse, were able to express how certain behaviours made them feel. That's information that can be useful to professionals working with women from other cultures, she says.
Barata's teaching and research take up a lot of her time these days, but her face lights up when she talks about her other passion — her two-year-old son, Benjamin. “He makes me laugh every day. They're so honest at this age, and I love seeing his personality come out.”