Hispanic acculturation and utilization of cervical cancer screening in the US.
BACKGROUND
Hispanic women have an incidence rate of invasive cervical cancer that is twice as high as that of non-Hispanic White women. Previous investigations have reported that Hispanics are less likely to utilize cancer screening services. Using data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, this study examined whether acculturation of Hispanic women was associated with cervical cancer screening.


METHODS
The subjects included 2307 Hispanic women aged 21-70 who did not have a history of cervical cancer or a hysterectomy. Women were analyzed by acculturation level according to whether or not they ever had a Pap smear and had one in the previous year and previous 3 years.


RESULTS
Acculturation levels tended to be inversely correlated with no Pap smear. Compared to lower acculturated women, women who were more acculturated were less likely to never had a Pap smear (OR = 0.86; 95% CI = 0.58-1.27 for moderate acculturated women and OR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.29-0.89 for higher acculturated women). Similar results were found for having no Pap smear within the past 3 years (OR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.61-1.13 for moderate acculturated women and OR = 0.73; 95% CI = 0.49-1.08 for higher acculturated women).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings show that lower acculturation was associated with the under use of cervical cancer screening and suggest that these women might have barriers in accessing and utilizing Pap smears.
Shah
Mona
M
United States Military Cancer Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Building 1, Washington, DC 20307-5001, USA.
Zhu
Kangmin
K
Wu
Hongyu
H
Potter
John
J
D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology*; D014481:United States; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*