View article

Background:

Immigrant women are less likely to undergo cancer screening. However, few national studies have examined the role of citizenship status or acculturation.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to examine differences in Papanicolaou (Pap) smear and mammography screening among US-born women and immigrants who are naturalized citizens or remained noncitizens. Among Latinas, we also determined if acculturation is related to screening after adjusting for covariates.

Research Design:

The authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the Adult Section of the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative sample.

Subjects:

A total of 18,342 women completed the survey, including 1445 who were not citizens.

Measures:

For Pap smears, women age 18–65 were appropriately screened if they reported testing within the past 3 years. For mammograms, women age 50–70 were …