Deconstructing fatalism: ethnographic perspectives on women's decision making about cancer prevention and treatment.

摘要: Researchers have long held that fatalism (the belief in a lack of personal power or control over destiny fate) constitutes major barrier to participation positive health behaviors and, subsequently, adversely affects outcomes. In this paper, we present two in-depth, ethnographic studies rural women's decisions surrounding cancer treatments illustrate the complexity and contestability long-established construct. Narrative analyses suggest for these women, numerous complex factors—including inadequate access services, legacy self-reliance, insufficient privacy, combined with culturally acceptable idiom fatalism—foster use of, but not necessarily rigid conviction in, notion fatalism.