Beliefs Regarding Thoroughness of Cancer Screening Exams for Women

Purpose: This report describes beliefs on whether women receive less thorough cancer screening exams than men, comparing responses by gender and by race/ethnicity. Methods: The Cancer Screening Questionnaire, a 60 item instrument, was administered via a RDD telephone interview to 1,148 non-institutionalized Blacks, Whites and Hispanic adults 18 and over in San Juan, PR, Baltimore, MD and New York, NY with response rates of 58%, 51% and 45%. This questionnaire asked study participants whether or not they felt that women, compared to men get less thorough cancer screening exams. Results: The sample had a mean age 47 years (sd+/- 16 years; range 19 to 96), with women comprising 65% and 56% had had some college or more. The majority of respondents (58.5%) reported that women "never or rarely" received less thorough cancer screenings than men, 21.7% stated that this was true "some of the time" and 19.7% reported this was true "often or always." The belief that women "always or often" get less thorough cancer screening exam was related to gender (22.3% women vs.15% men, ChiSq = 12.9, df=2, p<0.01) and to lower levels of education (26%/= college grad., ChiSq=32.2, df=2, p<0.01). Among men, Hispanics and Blacks were more likely to answer "always" or "often" (23% Blacks, 22 % PR) compared to Whites (8.3%, ChiSq=26.8, df=4 p<0.01), while among women there were no differences among racial/ethnic groups. Conclusion: While the majority of respondents felt that women did not, or only rarely received less thorough cancer screenings than men, women were more likely than men to report, at p < 0.05, that they "always or often" received less thorough cancer screenings than men. Among men, but not women, minority groups were more likely to believe that women receive less thorough cancer screening exams than men.

Supported by NIDCR grants: U54 DE014257, and T32 DE007255.