Open Collections

Recent trends in cancer screening uptake amongst immigrants in Canada between 2005-2015

University of British Columbia

INTRODUCTION: In 2016 alone, an estimated 202,400 Canadians developed cancer, and 78,800 died of the disease. In Canada, the use of reliable screening techniques for three types of cancer – breast, cervical, and colorectal – could help decrease cancer burden on a national scale. However, the literature also suggests that cancer screening uptake may be hampered in specific subpopulations, including among Canadian immigrants. The current study seeks to examine the association between immigration and breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer uptake. METHODS: This analysis uses ten years of data, 2005 – 2015, from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). Survey cycles were pooled to create an average pseudo-population and a bootstrap resampling technique was used to estimate variance. Age and sex-standardized rates were used to examine breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates between recent immigrants, long-term immigrants, and Canadian-born individuals. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the impact of immigration status on non-adherence and never screening, as well as to look at differences among immigrant subgroups and between screening years. RESULTS: Results indicate that recent immigrants (residing in Canada for 0 – 9 years) may have higher odds of never screening and non-adherence for breast cancer screening (AOR 2.15 (CI 0.89 – 5.20) and AOR 1.73 (CI 0.90 – 3.33), respectively), for cervical cancer screening (AOR 1.27 (CI 0.70 – 2.29) and AOR 1.47 (CI 0.98 – 2.21), respectively), and for colorectal cancer screening (AOR 1.75 (CI 1.11 – 2.77) and AOR 1.54 (CI 0.98 – 2.44), respectively) compared to Canadian-born individuals, although most results were not statistically significant. Importantly, several sociodemographic factors were significantly associated with never screening and non-adherence, including higher income and higher educational attainment. There was some evidence of differential uptake in immigrants by world region of birth and racial origin. The risk of non-adherence and never-screening among immigrants did not change significantly between 2005 – 2015. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that immigrants residing in Canada for 9 years or less are at higher risk of never screening and non-adherence to breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening guidelines. This study supports targeted interventions to increase preventative cancer screening use among newcomers to Canada.

Text

2019-01-03

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/68150

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/