180877 Low rates of breast cancer screening in Korean women compared with Korean American women

Monday, October 27, 2008

Sunmin Lee, ScD, MPH , Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD
Kui Son Choi, PhD , National Cancer Center, Goyang-Si, Kyunggi-Do, South Korea
Eun-Cheol Park, MD, PhD , National Cancer Center, Goyang-Si, Kyunggi-Do, South Korea
Min-Son Kwak, MPH , Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
Bonnie Spring, PhD , Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Hee-Soon Juon, PhD , Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Significance: Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Korean American women as well as Korean women in Korea. Screening mammography is critical method for the early detection and timely treatment of breast cancer. However, many Asian women are not aware of the importance of screening mammography due to lack of access to health care resources and low perceived risk of getting breast cancer. Moreover, no study compared rates of screening mammography of Asian women in the U.S. and in their homeland.

Objective: To examine variations of breast cancer screening rate of Korean women in the U.S. and in Korea.

Methods: We used the 2005 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data and 2005 Korea National Cancer Screening Survey. For CHIS data, SUDAAN software was used to take into account the design of the complex and multistage sample.

Results: Screening mammography rates for Korean Americans were below those for white and well below Healthy People 2010 objectives. However, Korean American women reported higher rates of breast cancer screening than Korean women in Korea. Korean American women reported higher rate of ever had mammogram than Korean women in Korea: 75% vs. 57.4% for ever had a mammogram; 57.4% vs. 38.4% for had a mammogram in the past two years. There was also significant geographic variation in rate of mammography screening among Korean women.

Discussion: Potential difference in screening rates between the Korean women and Korean American women may indicate an important influence of social and cultural factors on preventive health behavior.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants will be able to: 1. Recognize the difference in rates of breast cancer screening in Korean women living Korea and Korean American women living in the US. 2. Describe possible reasons for differences in breast cancer screening rates between the two groups. 3. Discuss potential programs to increase breast cancer screening rates in the two groups.

Keywords: Asian Americans, Breast Cancer Screening

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I participated in manuscript writing and provided my expertise in Asian American health.
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.

See more of: Cancer Prevention & Control among Asians & Pacific Islanders
See more of: Asian Pacific Islander Caucus of APHA