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Race, Immigrant Status, and Cancer Among Women in the United States

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Abstract

Research on the incidence of cancer among the immigrant population has tended to be of quite a limited scope. We investigate whether immigrant women in the US are less likely to have been recently diagnosed with cancer, and what factors might help to explain any differences identified. We estimate multivariate Logistic regression models to identify the determinants of a diagnosis within the last 3 years of any cancer, of breast cancer and of cervical cancer as well as the use of cancer screening by US women, using self-reported information on cancer diagnosis from consecutive waves of the US National Health Interview Survey over the years 1998–2007. Immigrant women of different ethnic groups are less likely to have been diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer compared to US-born women. The use of basic health services, including cancer screening, is also lower for immigrant women for each main ethnic group. More research is required to determine whether immigrants may face delays in timely diagnosis of cancer by health care professionals.

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Notes

  1. Since the geographic location of the individual is available, researchers are able to link community-level data on poverty and other aggregate SES measures drawn from the US Census. See for example Ward [16].

  2. Information on breast and cervical cancer screening is not available in all NHIS survey years. Results for the determinants of cancer screening are based only on survey years that record this information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, E3B5A3, Canada

    James Ted McDonald

  2. Department of Education, Province of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Jeremiah Neily

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  1. James Ted McDonald
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  2. Jeremiah Neily
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Correspondence to James Ted McDonald.

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McDonald, J.T., Neily, J. Race, Immigrant Status, and Cancer Among Women in the United States. J Immigrant Minority Health 13, 27–35 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-009-9268-1

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