TY - JOUR
T1 - Health insurance and cervical cancer screening among older women in Latin American and Caribbean cities
AU - Reyes-Ortiz, Carlos A.
AU - Velez, Luis F.
AU - Camacho, Maria E.
AU - Ottenbacher, Kenneth J.
AU - Markides, Kyriakos S.
N1 - Funding Information:
C.A.R.O. acknowledges financial support from the Department of Defense (W81XWH-06-1-0290) and from the Multicultural Health and Healthcare Research Network, Health Quality Scholar Program at the University of California Los Angeles and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
PY - 2008/8
Y1 - 2008/8
N2 - Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear use for cervical cancer screening and to estimate its association with type of health care insurance. Methods: Across-sectional study using data from the Health, Well-Being and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean Study (SABE). The sample includes 6357 women aged 60 and older from seven cities. The outcome was reporting a Pap smear for cervical cancer screening during the previous 2 years. Main independent variable was health care insurance. Covariates were demographic or socioeconomic variables, medical conditions and functional status. Results: Prevalence of Pap smear use across the seven cities ranged from 21% in Bridgetown to 45% in Mexico City. In a multivariate analysis of the combined sample, without Havana that has universal health care insurance, women with public insurance (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.43 - 0.71) or with no insurance (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.15 - 0.34) were less likely to have a Pap smear compared with women with private insurance. Also, women with no insurance were less likely to have a Pap smear (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.30 - 0.54) compared with women with any health insurance. Conclusions: In general, the prevalence of Pap smear use was lower than that reported for Hispanic populations in the United States. Overall, lack of health insurance or having public health insurance determined lower odds for having a Pap smear for cervical cancer screening.
AB - Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear use for cervical cancer screening and to estimate its association with type of health care insurance. Methods: Across-sectional study using data from the Health, Well-Being and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean Study (SABE). The sample includes 6357 women aged 60 and older from seven cities. The outcome was reporting a Pap smear for cervical cancer screening during the previous 2 years. Main independent variable was health care insurance. Covariates were demographic or socioeconomic variables, medical conditions and functional status. Results: Prevalence of Pap smear use across the seven cities ranged from 21% in Bridgetown to 45% in Mexico City. In a multivariate analysis of the combined sample, without Havana that has universal health care insurance, women with public insurance (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.43 - 0.71) or with no insurance (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.15 - 0.34) were less likely to have a Pap smear compared with women with private insurance. Also, women with no insurance were less likely to have a Pap smear (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.30 - 0.54) compared with women with any health insurance. Conclusions: In general, the prevalence of Pap smear use was lower than that reported for Hispanic populations in the United States. Overall, lack of health insurance or having public health insurance determined lower odds for having a Pap smear for cervical cancer screening.
KW - Cancer screening
KW - Health insurance
KW - Latin America and Caribbean
KW - Older women
KW - Pap smear
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U2 - 10.1093/ije/dyn096
DO - 10.1093/ije/dyn096
M3 - Article
C2 - 18511488
AN - SCOPUS:48349133493
SN - 0300-5771
VL - 37
SP - 870
EP - 878
JO - International journal of epidemiology
JF - International journal of epidemiology
IS - 4
ER -