Patterns of Mammography, Pap Smear, and Colorectal Cancer Screening Services Among Women Aged 45 and Over

June 9, 2021

NHSR157_SampleQuestions for Yelena Gorina, Health Statistician and Lead Author of “Patterns of Mammography, Pap Smear, and Colorectal Cancer Screening Services Among Women Aged 45 and Over.”

Q: Why did you decide to focus on screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers in women?

YG: I was thinking about this topic since many years ago my step-father who was a gastroenterologist, introduced me to one of his patients who he saved by removing pre-cancerous polyps from her colon.  He was the first one who told me that colon cancer was 90% preventable if the screening would be done on a regular basis.

Q: Can you summarize how the percentage of cancer screenings varied by age groups?

YG: The percentage of cancer screenings varies by age and type of cancer and generally follow The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations. Percentage of colorectal cancer screening increase from 34% at age 45-54 to 72% at age 75-84 and then drop to 47% at age 85 and over. Percentage of mammography remains about 70% between age 45 and 84 and drops to 31% among those aged 85 and over. Percentage of cervical cancer screening decreases with age gradually from 78% among women 45–54 to 14% among those aged 85 and over.

Q: Do you have trend data for previous years?

YG: The objective of our report was to assess differences in screening for colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers by various characteristics using the data available for 2015 and 2018 National Health Interview Survey. status, behavioral factors, and health care utilization among noninstitutionalized civilian women aged 45 and over. The estimates from the National Center for Health publication Health US 2019 show that prevalence of mammography among women aged 50 and over remains about 65% since 2005;  use of Pap smears among women aged 18+ decreased from 78% in 2005 to 68% in 2018 45-64; and percentage of screening for colorectal cancer among women 50-75 increased from 44% om 2005 to 67% in 2018.

Q: Was there a specific finding in the data that surprised you from this report?

YG: A specific findings that surprised me in our report was Non-Hispanic white and black women aged 45-64 are more likely to be screened for breast cancer compared with Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian women, and that 30% of non-Hispanic Asian women aged 65 and over received no screening for any of the three types of cancer, two times more compared with Hispanic and Non-Hispanic white and black women of the same age.

Q: What is the take home message for this report?

YG: We would like the readers note the disparities in the percentage screened for vulnerable groups of women, especially those with insurance and those without, those with more education and/or poor and those who had more education and not in poverty, and those who live in more rural area and those who live in the metropolitan statistical area.

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Breast Cancer Screening Among Women by Nativity, Birthplace, and Length of Time in the United States

October 9, 2019

Questions for Lead Author Tainya Clarke, Health Statistician, of “Breast Cancer Screening Among Women by Nativity, Birthplace, and Length of Time in the United States.”

Q: Why did you decide to do a report on mammography screening among women by nativity?

TC: There is currently limited published research on how nativity, birthplace and/or lifetime in the US of ethnically diverse foreign-born women affect the likelihood of having a mammogram.

Q: How did the data vary by nativity, birthplace and lifetimes in the United States?

TC: Foreign-born women were less likely than US-born women to have ever had a mammogram. If evaluated on equal standing for selected sociodemographic factors e.g. income, education, marital status; foreign-born women residing in the United States for less than 25% of their lifetime were as likely as US-born women to have met the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations, while those residing in the United States for 25% or more of their lifetime were more likely to do so than US-born women.

Q: Was there a specific finding in your report that surprised you?

TC: Yes, we found that after controlling for the sociodemographic factors examined in this research, foreign-born women from some countries such as Mexico, and Central America were more likely to have received mammogram compared with US-born women.

Q: How did you obtain this data for this report?

TC: The data was obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics NCHS and most of the information used are publicly available. Information such as country of birth and year of immigration may be obtained through the CDC’s Research Data Center (RDC) by submitting a proposal stating the reason for use.

Q: What is the take home message for this report?

TC: Length of lifetime in the US among foreign-born women have some positive affect on the likelihood of having a mammogram among foreign-born women. However, analyses indicate that the absence of some sociodemographic factors such as health insurance coverage, usual place for medical care, and poor standing in some factors such as educational attainment, seeing a doctor in the past year and income, also play a role in the likelihood of getting a mammogram among foreign-born women.

Leave a Comment » | Cancer, mammogram, National Health Interview Survey | Permalink
Posted by briantsai