Barriers to lifetime and recent mammography screening among Latinas

Background. Breast cancer is the number one cause of cancer mortality among Latina women. Indeed, Latinas tend to get diagnosed with breast cancer at a later stage with more aggressive cancer types than non-Latina Whites.

Purpose. To investigate the sociodemographic, cultural, and access to health care correlates of lifetime and (≤1 year) recent mammography among Latinas living in California, and to examine Latinas′ perceived barriers to recent mammography screening.

Methods. Data are from a population based, random-digit-dial probability survey of California women. Participants included 1,413 Latina women aged ≥40. Three categories of acculturation were created based on nativity/length of residency and language preference (high, moderate, low acculturation). Multivariate logistic regression models examined factors related to lifetime and recent mammography screening to obtain odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results. 84.1% of Latinas ever had a mammogram, and only 56.1% had a recent mammogram. High acculturation was associated with greater odds of ever having a mammogram compared with low acculturation (OR=3.7; CI=2.5-5.4). Acculturation was not associated with having a recent mammogram, but access to health care was a strong predictor of recent screening (adjusted OR=2.6; CI=1.7-4.0). Perceived barriers to recent screening included inconvenience (25.2%), cost (22.7%), lack of physician recommendation (21.4%), and not knowing it was needed (19.2%).

Conclusions. Policy initiatives to increase rates of breast cancer screening among Latinas should prioritize lowering costs and improving access to health insurance. Perceptions of inconvenience and lack of cancer/screening knowledge should be key components of interventions aimed at improving routine mammography screening among Latinas.