OBJECTIVES Disparities exist for breast and cervical cancer screening among racial/ ethnic groups and low-income women. This study determines racial/ethnic variation in: 1) staging readiness for mammography, Pap smears, and clinical breast exam (CBE); 2) identifying patterns of adherence; and 3) determining sociodemographics associated with compliance with all three exams. DESIGN Cross-sectio...

Epidemiological investigations of maternal and child health may involve the collection of biological specimens, including cord blood and the placenta; however, the attitudes of pregnant women towards participation in the collection of biological specimens have been studied rarely. We evaluated attitudes towards collection and storage of biological specimens, and determined whether attitudes dif...

BACKGROUND Women of color report the lowest levels of physical activity and highest rates of overweight and obesity in the US. The purpose of this study was to develop an individualized, ecologically valid, field based method to assess physical activity over seven days for community dwelling women of color using accelerometers. METHODS Accelerometer-measured physical activity, Borg perceived ...

In 2008, CDC published a supplement to the journal Cancer describing incidence patterns of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers prior to availability of an HPV vaccine. This report updates the information on HPV-associated female genital cancer incidence with more recent data, adds information on trends, and includes American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. We used combined d...

Background: In women, midlife is a period of social and physiological change. Ostensibly stressful, cross-sectional studies suggest women experience decreasing stress perceptions and increasing positive outlook during this life stage. The aim of this paper was to describe the longitudinal changes in perceived stress as women transitioned through the midlife. Methods: Premenopausal women (n = 30...

Cervical cancer is largely preventable if detected early. Minority populations and people of low socioeconomic status are affected disproportionately by cervical cancer. When compared to non-Hispanic white women, Hispanic/Latino women residing in the United States have twice the incidence rate of and 1.4 times the mortality from cervical cancer. Contributing factors include lack of awareness ab...