“Another Thing We Have to Deal With”: Black Women’s Communication About Stigmatized Health Disparities

We use the Structural Influence Model (SIM) to explore how information seeking mediates the relationship between stigmatized health topics—like pelvic floor disorders (PFDs)—and persistent health disparities. Health disparities exist in part because of the impact of race on some part of the health seeking process. For the current topic, PFD research has largely been conducted on White women but less so on non-White women. To broaden our understanding women’s perceptions of PFDs, 32 Black women were interviewed using qualitative individual interviews, dyad interviews, and focus groups. Data suggests that Black women have some unique perceptions about PFDs. Women express that PFDs are another health issueFootnote1 they must deal with, and they are reflective of “regular racism that Black women face.” These perceptions of discrimination are commingled with experiences around shame because of stigma related to PFDs, like about the dynamics of relief, particularly in problematic public and work environments. Women navigate decision-making across a contradiction of childhood-learned norms as well as conflicting information with co-existing health rules. These double stigmatizations–of women’s identities, and of PFDs–suggest a deeply complex mediating condition affecting a low rate of Black women seeking information about PFDs. According to the SIM, this perpetuates health disparities. We present participants’ recommendations for communication campaigns that consider health communication, stigmatized health, and health disparities.