The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #35613

Judith Katzburg, PhD, Department of Health Services, University of California, Los Angeles, 801 Sassafras Way, Oak Park, CA 91377, 818-889-8739, jkatzbur@ucla.edu

A series of staged logistic regression analyses were undertaken to determine the impact of acculturation and citizenship status on immigrant access to preventive health care services (mammography and Papanicolaou smear). A telephone survey of 1777 Latina immigrants living in Los Angeles County comprised the study population. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Both lack of U.S. citizenship and limited acculturation (as measured by proportion of years in the United States relative to age) appear to present access barriers to Pap smears. Limited acculturation also appears to be a barrier to mammography while citizenship was not found to be a significant predictor. Further analyses indicate that those who are non-citizens or are less acculturated appear to be less likely to have health insurance and a regular source of care, impeding access to both pap smears and mammography. However, providing non-citizens with health insurance coverage may not solve problems of access given that a significant interactive effect between citizenship and health insurance exists. This interaction indicates that non-citizens who have health insurance are less likely to have a Pap test than are naturalized citizens with health insurance. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY, DELIVERY OR PRACTICE: Outreach efforts should be made to the vulnerable segments of the immigrant Latina population including non-citizens. However, providing health insurance to non-citizens will not ensure their access to Pap smears. Additional research is needed to determine why non-citizens appear to benefit less from having health insurance than do naturalized citizens and to identify additional barriers to access for this non-citizen population.

Learning Objectives:

• List at least two important barriers to access to preventive services for immigrant Latina women living in Los Angeles County;
• Identify two or more correlates that might explain why lack of either U.S. citizenship and/or acculturation may result in decreased access to Pap smear and/or mammography testing;
• Describe the interactive effect of citizenship status with health insurance status;
• List two or more policy implications for immigrant Latina women who are non-citizens and/or are less acculturated regarding their access to health care.

Keywords: Cancer Screening, Immigrant Women

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.