Abstract C86: Distance to free and low cost screening centers and cervical cancer screening behaviors of low income women in New Jersey

Abstract

Abstract Racial/ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes have been well documented. Access to Pap testing may account for some of the variation in the racial and socioeconomic differences in cervical cancer outcomes. The rate of Pap testing within the past three years has been shown to vary by both race/ethnicity and by access to medical care. Given this, there has been an increase in the use of GIS to explore and understand cancer screening behaviors. The goal of this analysis was to evaluate and characterize the relationship between geographic proximity to free or low-cost cancer screening facilities and screening behaviors among low-income women in New Jersey using data collected from a cross-sectional survey (N= 459). Address data from 376 participants were geocoded using an ArcGIS address locator, using TIGER road map data as the source, to conduct a distance analysis between participant location and New Jersey Cancer Education & Early Detection (NJCEED) locations, which offer free and low cost screenings based on income. A majority of participants (60.6%) lived less than five miles from the nearest NJCEED location. There was no statistically significant difference in being screened between living <2 miles versus > 8 miles from a NJCEED location (OR = 1.40, 95%CI = 0.60 - 3.26) after adjusting for age, race, transportation, BMI, insurance, and perceived risk. However, when stratified by race, African American women who lived within 2 miles of a screening location were 5.59 times more likely to report being screened compared to women living more than 8 miles away (95% CI = 1.08 - 28.90), although this trend was not statistically significant (p=.06). Distance to free and low cost screening centers were associated with screening behaviors among low income African American women in NJ, but not low income white and Hispanic women, indicating a need for tailored interventions to reach this at risk population. Citation Format: Michelle L. Gardner, Elisa V. Bandera, Beth A. Jones, Kitaw Demisse, Stephanie AN Silvera. Distance to free and low cost screening centers and cervical cancer screening behaviors of low income women in New Jersey. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr C86.