English proficiency and physicians’ recommendation of Pap smears among Hispanics

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• 作者：Israel De Alba and Jamie M. Sweningson
• 关键词：Survival rates ; Education ; Sources of health case ; National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) ; Preventive interventions ; Cervical cancer screening ; Pap smears ; Physician recommendation ; Hispanics ; Latinos ; Health disparities ; Language proficiency
• 刊名：Cancer Detection and Prevention
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：30
• 期：3
• 页码：292-296
• 全文大小：97 K

文摘

Background: Hispanics have one of the highest incidence rates of cervical cancer. Physician recommendation is one of the most important cues to cancer screening; however, low English proficiency among Hispanics may hinder health providers’ recommendation of Pap smears. Methods: Analysis of data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey. All Hispanic women, age ≥18, without a Pap smear in the past 3 years or ever and who visited a health care provider in the past year were included. The main outcome was receipt of Pap smear recommendation by a health care provider. Results: A total of 314 Hispanic women were included in the analysis, 44.9 % were highly English proficient. Only 7.7 % of low English proficient Hispanics not up-to-date in cancer screening reported a recommendation for a Pap smear as compared to 14.3 % of highly proficient Hispanics. After adjusting for sociodemographics and health access and utilization factors, highly English proficient Hispanics were more than two times as likely to report receiving a recommendation for a Pap smear as compared to the less proficient (aOR 2.2, 95 % CI 1.1–4.5). Conclusions: Low English language proficiency is a barrier to receive a recommendation for Pap smear among Hispanic women not up-to-date with cervical cancer screening. Further research is needed to explore specific mechanisms responsible for the low recommendation rates and to assess the impact of interpreters or Spanish-speaking providers on Pap smear recommendation rates.