Cervical cancer is a preventable disease that exerts a disproportionate burden of morbidity and mortality on Hispanic women, especially poor rural women and farmworkers. Nationwide, knowledge of and utilization of Pap smears among Hispanic women, especially farmworkers, is the lowest of any ethnic group. In order to assess the rate of knowledge and utilization of cancer prevention services and barriers to obtaining those services among California's farmworkers, we administered the Cervical Cancer, Breast Cancer, and Access to Care modules of the Spanish-language BRFS to 614 farmworker women resident in migrant labor camps in Northern California. The survey revealed that 89% had heard of Pap smears and 69% had had one; 87% had heard of mammograms and 53% had had one. These percentages are comparable to national data, and multivariate analysis revealed that neither income nor education exert an effect; marital status, age, number of children (probably a surrogate for contact with the health care system) and knowledge of other services were associated with both knowledge and utilization. We then designed and implemented lay health advisor training and helped them make educational presentations, which met with a very good response from the farmworker community. Subsequent resurvey revealed a significant impact on knowledge and utilization, attributed by the respondents to the activities of the lay health advisors.
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to: 1.) state approximate percentages of American women surveyed who have heard of and received breast and cervical cancer preventive services; 2.) identify discrepancies in knowledge and utilization of screening services between ethnic groups; 3.) present some alternatives for raising screening rates
Keywords: Access to Care, Cancer Prevention
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: UNiversity of California, Davis, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine; The University of California Agricultural Health and Safety Center @ UC Davis
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.