Comparison of Breast and Colon Cancer Screening Rate of Korean residing in Korea and U.S

The current study was conducted to compare the breast cancer and colon cancer screening rate of Korean women older than 30 years of age at Korea and U.S., and the survey was conducted by using the same questionnaire.

For the collection of the study data, interviews were conducted in Gyeongju city, South Korea for 359 women older than 30 years old, and the California Health Interview Survey data that were acquired from 362 Korean women older than 30 years of age were used for the study.

For the experience of having the mammography, 65.5% and 32.9% of the women in U.S. and Korea responded to have the experience at least once, respectively. Showing that the Korean women residing in U.S. had twice higher screening rate for the cancer (p<0.01). For the frequency of having the mammography for the last 6 years, 25.3% of the women residing in U.S. responded once, 20.7% of the women responded twice, and 16.9% of these women responded as 6 rounds. But the 78.6% of women in Korea responded as once by showing large gap between two countries (p<0.01).

The experience of having colonoscopy was responded as 18.2% in U.S. and 16.5% in Korea, respectively by showing the similar screening rate. 7.2% of Korean women in U.S. and 18.1% of Korean women responded to have the fecal occult blood test by showing higher rate of having the test in Korean women (p<0.01).