Paper short abstract:

The documentary draws from findings of a long-term community-based participatory study anchor in low-income rural and peri-urban areas of Argentina, with the goal of providing insights into the role played by social determinants of health in cancer inequity. It is based on a collaborative design.

Paper long abstract:

Latin America has almost twice the overall cancer mortality than global north countries, and a greater proportion of the burden of morbidity, with inequities associated with this cancer burden (IARC/WHO, 2008). The role played by the first level of attention turned out to be an important determinant for explaining this gap, especially since it is much more easily modified than distal determinants, due to the fact that there are cancers that diagnosed in time are either preventable, such as cervical cancer, or treatable and curable if detected in early stages, such as breast cancer. This documentary draws from findings of a long-term community-based participatory study anchor in low-income rural and peri-urban areas of Argentina, with the goal of providing insights into the role played by social determinants of health in cancer inequity during the first phases of the continuum of cancer control. It is based on a collaborative design oriented to equity; organized in a collaborative format; and work with communities. Eight health centres were selected through a strategic sampling that combined theoretical and empirical selection criteria. The populations of these communities have economic difficulties, low or no level of education and there were social problem scenarios in adverse environmental conditions. The strategy combined more specific forms of inquiry, mainly ethnography but also some other qualitative methods. These non-intrusive methods were enriched with the perspectives of the locals who were also researchers.