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Associations between Fatalistic Cancer Beliefs and Cancer-Screening Behaviors in Chinese American Immigrant Women

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Abstract

Chinese Americans have among the lowest rates of up-to-date cancer screening in the United States. Fatalistic health beliefs are also common in this population and can lead to decreased healthcare utilization. We sought to understand how these fatalistic beliefs are associated with cancer screening behaviors in this underserved population. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 732 Chinese women from the greater Chinatown area of Chicago, Illinois. Surveyed questions included sociodemographic information, self-reported healthcare utilization and cancer screening behaviors. The majority of respondents were older than 50, spoke Chinese, had less than a college education, public or no medical insurance, and an annual income  < $20,000. Approximately 20% had never received Papanicolaou or mammogram screening. Fatalistic beliefs were common and associated with increased health-seeking behaviors and appropriate Pap and mammogram screening. In this cohort of Chinese American immigrant women in an urban Chinatown community, fatalistic cancer beliefs were prevalent and associated with increased health-seeking and positive cancer screening behaviors. This previously unreported relationship could be leveraged in improving health outcomes of an underserved population.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute (Grant R01CA163830).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaoyue Mona Guo

    Present address: , 2020 Zonal Ave, IRD, Room 220, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 250 E. Superior St., Suite 5-2177, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Xiaoyue Mona Guo, Laura Tom, Ivy Leung & Melissa Simon

  2. Center for Health Equity Transformation, Institute for Public Health and Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Laura Tom, Ivy Leung, Catherine O’Brian & Melissa Simon

  3. Biostatistics Collaboration Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Katelyn Zumpf

  4. Department of General/Preventive Medicine and Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    Melissa Simon

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by LT, IL, and CO. Data analysis was performed by XMG and KZ. The first draft of the manuscript was written by XMG and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. Supervision of the project was performed by MS.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaoyue Mona Guo.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Northwestern University (ID: STU00059420).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Guo, X.M., Tom, L., Leung, I. et al. Associations between Fatalistic Cancer Beliefs and Cancer-Screening Behaviors in Chinese American Immigrant Women. J Immigrant Minority Health 23, 699–706 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01144-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01144-4

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