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

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.