NPR

Why Are Black Women Less Likely To Stick With A Breast Cancer Follow-Up Treatment?

Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. One reason may be that they face economic and cultural barriers to taking the medications that can prevent recurrence.
As a counselor, Niasha Fray saw first-hand the obstacles black women face in breast cancer treatment. She's now program director of the Duke Center for Community and Population Health Improvement.

When she was in graduate school for public health, Niasha Fray found a job she loved: counseling women with breast cancer about sticking to their treatment.

She offered what's called "motivational interviewing," a type of therapy intended to help women overcome obstacles keeping them from taking their medications — which can have unpleasant side effects

"They had just given up so much of their lives, so much of their bodies, so much of their family," Fray says. "They wanted to get back to life as usual."

Fray was doing the counseling as part of research into disparities in

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