Title
Decreasing Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening in Refugee Women Using Culturally Tailored Patient Navigation
Publication Date
2013
Document Type
Article
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Patient navigator (PN) programs can improve breast cancer screening in low income, ethnic/racial minorities. Refugee women have low breast cancer screening rates, but it has not been shown that PN is similarly effective.
OBJECTIVE: Evaluate whether a PN program for refugee women decreases disparities in breast cancer screening.
DESIGN: Retrospective program evaluation of an implemented intervention.
PARTICIPANTS: Women who self-identified as speaking Somali, Arabic, or Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian) and were eligible for breast cancer screening at an urban community health center (HC). Comparison groups were English-speaking and Spanish-speaking women eligible for breast cancer screening in the same HC.
INTERVENTION: Patient navigators educated women about breast cancer screening, explored barriers to screening, and tailored interventions individually to help complete screening.
MAIN MEASURES: Adjusted 2-year mammography rates from logistic regression models for each calendar year accounting for clustering by primary care physician. Rates in refugee women were compared to English-speaking and Spanish-speaking women in the year before implementation of the PN program and over its first 3 years.
RESULTS: There were 188 refugee (36 Somali, 48 Arabic, 104 Serbo-Croatian speaking), 2,072 English-speaking, and 2,014 Spanish-speaking women eligible for breast cancer screening over the 4-year study period. In the year prior to implementation of the program, adjusted mammography rates were lower among refugee women (64.1 %, 95 % CI: 49–77 %) compared to English-speaking (76.5 %, 95 % CI: 69 %–83 %) and Spanish-speaking (85.2 %, 95 % CI: 79 %–90 %) women. By the end of 2011, screening rates increased in refugee women (81.2 %, 95 % CI: 72 %–88 %), and were similar to the rates in English-speaking (80.0 %, 95 % CI: 73 %–86 %) and Spanish-speaking (87.6 %, 95 % CI: 82 %–91 %) women. PN increased screening rates in both younger and older refugee women.
CONCLUSION: Linguistically and culturally tailored PN decreased disparities over time in breast cancer screening among female refugees from Somalia, the Middle East and Bosnia.
Original Citation
Percac-Lima, S., Ashburner, J.M., Bond, B., Oo, S.A., & Atlas, S.J. (2013). Decreasing Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening in Refugee Women Using Culturally Tailored Patient Navigation. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 28(11), 1463-1468. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-013-2491-4
Identifier
Virtual Commons Citation
Percac-Lima, Sanja; Ashburner, Jeffrey M.; Bond, Barbara; Oo, Sarah A.; and Atlas, Steven J. (2013). Decreasing Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening in Refugee Women Using Culturally Tailored Patient Navigation. In Social Work Faculty Publications. Paper 35.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/socialwork_fac/35