290264
Health insurance status, health seeking, and mammography among Latinas in the u.s.-Mexico border
Lisa Lapeyrouse, PhD,
Department of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Michigan - Flint, Flint, MI
Josiah Heyman, PhD,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Univeristy of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX
Latinas have lower rates of mammography than Anglo-American women, while among Latinas, lacking insurance and having lower acculturation are correlated with additional disparities in mammography screening. Possible ways to overcome these barriers have significant interest to health care professionals. In a survey of Latino border residents of El Paso County, Texas, we investigated health care use and lifetime mammography among a sample of (n= 324) Latinas with and without health insurance. Consistent with previous research, findings from our study show that Latinas with health insurance were significantly more likely to report ever having a mammogram than uninsured Latinas. Likewise, more acculturated Latinas were more likely to report ever having a mammogram than less acculturated Latinas. Yet, among insured Latinas overall, significant differences in mammography were found by health care site. Latinas who only accessed health care in the U.S. were more likely to have ever had a mammogram than Latinas who utilized a combination of U.S. and Mexican health care ( p < .001) or Latinas who accessed health care solely in Mexico (p < .001). However, in an important reversal, among uninsured Latinas, those who only accessed health care in the U.S. were significantly less likely to report ever having had a mammogram than Latinas who utilized a combination of U.S. and Mexican health care (p < .001) and Latinas who only accessed Mexican health (p < .001). Thus, for Latinas lacking health insurance, access to Mexican health care may help decrease disparities in mammography.
Learning Areas:
Provision of health care to the public
Learning Objectives:
Identify key socio-econoomic differences between insured and uninsured Latinas in the border.
Compare the use of Mexican health care services among border Latinas by health insurance status.
Differentiate primary reasons border Latinas listed for accessing Mexican versus U.S. health care.
Keyword(s): Access to Health Care, Care Seeking
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a research analyst on several federally funded grants focusing on Latino health and health disparities. I am a published author in peer-reviewed, scholarly journals of public health as well as a reviewer for peer reviewed journals as well as conference abstracts submitted to APHA as well as other national scholarly conferences.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.