Socioeconomic determinants of cervical cancer screening in Latin America Determinantes socioeconómicos de las pruebas de detección sistemática del cáncer cervicouterino en América Latina

• Main Authors: Samir Soneji, Natsu Fukui
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2013
• Subjects: Neoplasias del cuello uterino; frotis vaginal; tamizaje masivo; Bolivia; Brasil; República Dominicana; Ecuador; Guatemala; Nicaragua; Perú; Trinidad y Tobago; América Latina; Uterine cervical neoplasms; vaginal smears; mass screening; Brazil; Dominican Republic; Peru; Trinidad and Tobago; Latin America; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic; Trinidad
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/b21b0595e7f343a697da264df118a66c

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of health care access and socioeconomic determinants on Pap smear screening in Latin America. METHODS: Individual-level data was collected from the Demographic and Health Surveys in Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago between 1987 and 2008. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify socioeconomic and health care determinants of two outcomes: knowledge of Pap smears and recent Pap smear screening. RESULTS: In all countries, the proportion of women with a recent Pap smear screening remained below 55%. Key determinants of knowledge of Pap smears were age, education, and recent doctor's visit. For recent Pap smear screening, key determinants were wealth and recent doctor's visit. Women were between 1.47 and 3.44 times more likely to have received a recent Pap smear if they had a recent doctor's visit. Even the poorest women with a recent doctor's visit were more likely to screen than the richest women without a recent visit. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that visiting a doctor is an important determinant of cervical cancer screening in Latin America. Because screening may coincide with other medical visits, physicians could effectively encourage screening. OBJETIVO: Evaluar las repercusiones del acceso a la atención de salud y de los determinantes socioeconómicos sobre la detección sistemática del cáncer cervicouterino con la prueba de Papanicolaou en América Latina. MÉTODOS: Se recopilaron datos individuales a partir de Encuestas de Demografía y Salud realizadas en Bolivia, Brasil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Perú, República Dominicana y Trinidad y Tobago entre 1987 y 2008. Se utilizaron análisis de regresión logística con múltiples variables para identificar los determinantes socioeconómicos y de atención de salud de dos resultados: el conocimiento de la existencia de la prueba de Papanicolaou y el tamizaje reciente con esta prueba. RESULTADOS: En todos los países, la proporción de mujeres ...