Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109704

Hee-Soon Juon, PhD¹, Ann C. Klassen, PhD², Helen Meissner, PhD³, Britt C. Reid, DDS, PhD⁴, and Juhee Cho, MA². (1) Dept. of Health Policy & Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene, 624 N. Broadway, 7th floor, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-614-5410, hjuon@jhsph.edu, (2) Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, (3) Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Executive Plaza North, Suite 4102, 6130 Executive Blvd, MSC 7331, Bethesda, MD 20892, (4) Health Promotion & Policy, University of Maryland Sch of Dentistry, 666 W. Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21201

Secondary prevention of oral cancer through routine screening is an important goal to reduce racial health disparities in late-stage diagnosis and mortality. The purpose of this study is to examine racial/ethnic variations in oral cancer screening behaviors using the 2001 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data, with the goal of identifying subgroup disparities. CHIS is a population-based random digit dialing telephone survey, designed to be representative of California residents. SUDAAN (Survey Data Analysis) software was used to take into account the complex multistage sampling design. Oral cancer screening rates for Hispanics were below those for white respondents, and well below Healthy People 2010 objectives: Hispanics reported lower rate of having dental visit in the past year than whites (59.8% vs. 73.9%). Rates were also low for African Americans (66.2%). There were significant variations among the Asian Americans for the rate of oral cancer screening, ranging from a low of 61.8% for Korean Americans to a high of 78.7% for Japanese Americans. Age, gender, education, having dental insurance, immigration status, language proficiency, and cigarette smoking were included to examine barriers to have regular oral cancer screening. Results suggest that Hispanics and African Americans are important targets for programs to deliver oral cancer prevention and early detection. It also shows that more detailed ethnicity information may unmask the important variations that exist among Asian American population groups.

Learning Objectives:

• To explore racial differences of oral cancer screening
• To examine barriers to regular oral cancer screening

Keywords: Oral Health, Ethnic Minorities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.