Cervical cancer screening behaviors among American Indian women: Cervical cancer literacy and health belief model

ABSTRACT

American Indian women experience disproportionately high rates of cervical cancer morbidity and mortality, yet cancer screening services tend to be underutilized. Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) with a survey of American Indian women (N = 286) in South Dakota, findings indicate that only 59% received Pap test within the past 2 years. Significant predictors of Pap test included advanced age, higher BMI, greater awareness of Pap test, greater motivation, and lower barriers to screening. Findings highlight the importance of considering awareness of cancer screening and HBM constructs (barriers and motivation) in the examination of programs to improve screening among this population.

KEYWORDS:

• American Indian women
• cervical cancer screening
• cervical cancer screening awareness
• Health Belief Model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding through the University of South Dakota Seed Grants at the School of Health Sciences. Dr. Soonhee Roh (Principal Investigator) acknowledges Dr. Robin Miskimins for her mentoring on a Seed Grant at the School of Health Sciences of the University of South Dakota.This study was supported, in part, by a San Francisco State University Faculty Grant to Dr. Yeon-Shim Lee (Development of Research and Creativity Grants).This work was supported, in part, by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (Krousel-Wood-PI; Catherine Burnette-Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIA or the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Supported in part by U54 GM104940 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.