PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To examine variations in cultural and health beliefs about mammography screening among a socioeconomically diverse sample of African American and Caucasian women and to identify which set of beliefs predicted mammography screening adherence. DESIGN Descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study. SETTING Community-based organizations and public housing. SAMPLE 111 Afr...

OBJECTIVE Disparities in screening mammography use persists among low income women, even those who are insured, despite the proven mortality benefit. A recent study reported that more than a third of hospitalized women were non-adherent with breast cancer screening. The current study explores prevalence of socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with non-adherence to screening mammo...

INTRODUCTION Racial/ethnic disparities in cervical cancer screening exist in the United States; rates are lowest among women who live in Puerto Rico. We identified factors associated with cervical cancer screening among women aged 18 years or older living in Puerto Rico. METHODS We included women who participated in the Puerto Rico Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2006 who had no...

People are diagnosed with cancer sooner nowadays thanks to increased awareness and improvements in cancer screenings. Patients are able to live longer due to cancer treatment regimens; however, they suffer the consequences of living with cancer and therapy-related symptoms. Symptom management is challenging for both patients and family caregivers. Therefore, family members must be integrated in...

BACKGROUND Most health promotion trials in cancer screening offer limited evidence of external validity. We assessed internal and external validity in a nationwide, population-based trial of an intervention to promote regular mammography screening. METHODS Beginning in September 2000, study candidates age 52 years and older (n = 23,000) were randomly selected from the National Registry of Wom...

BACKGROUND This study evaluated whether women's perceptions of the conflicting recommendations for breast cancer screening were associated with decreased use of mammography. METHODS We conducted a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 1024 women in four communities of western Washington State. In addition to collecting data for demographics, beliefs about mammography, and insurance coverage, ...

OBJECTIVE: Health care disparities remain largely unexplained and need to be better understood to be addressed. Little is known about whether resident physicians screen patients differently based on race or socioeconomic status (SES). The objective of this study was to assess whether residents' preventive screening practices are influenced by patient race or SES or by resident gender, specialty...

Preventive colorectal cancer screening can significantly reduce mortality, but unfortunately, the participation in screening is still relatively low [1]. Although existing individual level models (e.g., health belief model) have increased our understanding of colorectal cancer screening behavior, the empirical evidence for the associations between many individual level factors and screening beh...