Mammography Screening Disparities in Asian American Women: Findings From the California Health Interview Survey 2015–2016

Purpose: To identify mammography screening prevalence and predictors in Asian American women, focusing on the potential disparities in race and its influence on screening behaviors. Design: A secondary analysis utilized the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) 2015–2016. Setting: California, U.S. Sample: Cisgender women who were non-Hispanic (NH) White, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, or “other Asian”, aged 40 or above (unweighted N=13 451). Measures: Socioeconomics, chronic health conditions, and preventive care utilization were mesuared as potential risk factors, where up-to-date mammography screening as the outcome variable. Analysis: Multivariable adjusted logistic regressions were generalized to identify the up-to-date mammography screening behaviors in relation to potential factors, stratified by race and ethnicity. Results: The prevalence for up-to-date mammography screening in NH-White and Asian American women were 68.06% and 65.97%, respectively. In NH-White women, receiving an up-to-date mammogram was associated with age, birthplace, smoking status, diabetes, hypertension, health insurance coverage, and a preventive care visit in the past 12 months, whereas only age and a preventive care visit were significant predictors in Asian women. Conclusions: The findings indicate that utilization disparities exist in mammogram in relation to socioeconomics, chronic health conditions, preventive care utilization, when comparing between race and ethnicity. Asian American women with borderline hypertension and no preventive care visits may require more public health outreach and cancer education.