Racial and ethnic disparities in breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening in San Diego County: Local results from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) 2001-2003

Objectives: Though cancer screening programs have been in place for several decades, disparities still present a challenge to public health. Asians, African Americans, and Latinos still have disproportionately low rates of compliance with cancer screening recommendations.

Methods: In order to examine the disparities in cancer screening we looked at data for San Diego County from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) for 2001 and 2003. We also reviewed cancer data from the California Cancer Registry for 2000-2004 to determine whether the disparities in screening were reflected in cancer incidence and mortality.

Results: Cancer screening compliance varied by both test and race/ethnicity. In preliminary analyses using pooled data for 2001 and 2003, the percentages of women who were compliant with recommended cervical cancer screening was lowest in Asians (73.9%) while mammography screening percentages were lowest in Latinas (70.8%). Colorectal screening had the lowest compliance of all screening tests, no group had greater than 62% and Asians and Latinos were each below 40%. There are also differences in the cancer incidence and mortality rates by race/ethnicity though these are not always consistent.

Conclusions: Though the percentages of African Americans, Latinos, and Asians that are compliant with the current screening recommendations have improved over the past few years, there continue to be differences between white and non-white populations. Current education programs should be evaluated and updated if necessary and new programs should target non-compliant groups more closely.