Cervical cancer screening: exploring Appalachian patients' barriers to follow-up care.
This article describes a community-based Patient Navigation (PN) project conducted to identify potential barriers to seeking follow-up cervical cancer care in southeastern Kentucky. Patient navigators (PNs) were placed in cervical cancer programs within county public health departments where they interviewed patients about their perceived barriers to seeking follow-up care after receiving a positive Pap test result. Participants identified various potential barriers at three levels: the individual/personal level, the health care system level and the community/environmental level. One identified barrier that was unique to this study was a lack of consistency between follow-up recommendations and follow-up guidelines for patients under age 21. Implications are discussed.
a College of Social Work , University of Kentucky , Lexington , Kentucky , USA.
Gretchen E
GE
Ely
Carol
C
White
Kate
K
Jones
Frances
F
Feltner
Maria
M
Gomez
Brent
B
Shelton
Stacey
S
Slone
Emily
E
Van Meter
Christopher
C
Desimone
Nancy
N
Schoenberg
Mark
M
Dignan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001061:Appalachian Region / Q000453:epidemiology; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000191:economics / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D062526:Patient Navigation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012947:Social Work / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014626:Vaginal Smears; D055815:Young Adult