Cancer Information Disparities Between U.S.- and Foreign-Born Populations

Abstract

Immigrant health is an important component of American public health. But relatively little is known about immigrants' cancer information use. Using the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data, this study examined potential disparities between foreign-born (n = 563) and U.S.-born (n = 4,830) populations in their access to and experience with cancer information. Logistic regressions showed that foreign-born Hispanics were less likely than the U.S.-born to have ever sought cancer information (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = .51). Foreign-born individuals overall were also less likely to have had somebody else look for cancer information for them (OR = .66). Compared with the U.S.-born, foreign-born individuals in general faced greater obstacles during the process of cancer information seeking (ORs = 1.98–2.27). They were also less trusting of some important sources of health information (ORs = .50–.64), a pattern that was particularly pronounced among Hispanics (ORs = .20–.43). Implications of these disparities were explored through multiple linear regressions that revealed negative associations between cancer information use and undesirable cancer beliefs.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Xiaomei Cai for her assistance in early stages of this research.

Notes

Note. Bold ORs are significant. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. ORs are adjusted for gender, age, race (not included in White- and Hispanic-only analyses), education, marital status, health status, cancer diagnosis, health coverage, and employment.

^a Cases missing information on birthplace were excluded from analyses (n = 193).

^b These analyses were conducted with respondents who reported having ever looked for cancer information by themselves; n = 2,925 for the overall analysis, n = 2,322 for White-only analysis, n = 151 for Hispanic-only analysis.

^c This analysis was conducted with respondents who reported ever using the Internet; n = 3,089 for the overall analysis, n = 2,471 for White-only analysis, n = 167 for Hispanic-only analysis.

Note. b = unstandardized coefficient. Bold coefficients are significant. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

^a Cases missing information on birthplace were excluded from analyses (n = 193).