Abstract C106: Association between cancer risk perception and patient-centered communication and cervical cancer screening behavior among African Americans (AA) and Sub-Saharan African immigrant (SAI) women
Authors: Adegboyega Adebola , Wiggins Amanda , Dignan Mark 
Published: December 2023

Background- Black women in the US have disproportionately higher mortality and shortest survival than any ethnic or racial group for cervical cancer. Many factors contribute to the elevated cancer burden, including cancer risk perceptions and knowledge as well as patient centered communication behaviors that may influence cervical cancer screening uptake. Misperceptions of cancer risk and limited knowledge may decrease the use of preventive cancer screening. In addition, patients who encounter clinicians who practice communication not reflective of patient-centeredness may be less likely to participate in regular cancer screening. The aim of this study was to determine if cervical screening uptake among Black women was associated with cancer risk perceptions and knowledge and clinician communication behavior. Methods- We conducted a cross-sectional survey of Black women (African Americans (AA)  and sub-Saharan African (SAI) recruited from Lexington, KY  and surrounding towns. Data included sociodemographics, measures of cancer perceptions, and patient-centered communication. The chi-squared test of association and multiple linear regression were used to assess the unadjusted and adjusted associations among cancer risk perceptions and knowledge, patient-centered communication, and receipt of pap test. Data analysis was conducted using SAS, version 9.4 with an alpha of .05. Results- In the sample of 116 Black women who were age appropriate for pap screening (n = 48 SAI; n = 68 AA), nearly two-thirds had received a pap test (63%) in concordance with guidelines. Compared to those who had not had a pap,  women who had received a pap test endorsed the statement ‘it seems like everything causes cancer (p=.006),’ while fewer agreed ‘when I think about cancer, I automatically think about death (p&lt;.001)’. Both responses remained significant after adjusting for age, ethnicity, health insurance status and having a primary care provider.  A higher proportion of women agreed with the six patient-centered communication items in the bivariate analysis, and  remained significant in the adjusted modeling for the responses to the following three items: 1) During the past 12 months, how often did doctors, nurses, or other health professionals give you the chance to ask all the health-related questions you had?; 2) In the past 12 months, how often did you feel you could rely on doctors, nurses, or other health professionals to take care of your health care needs?; and 3) During the past 12 months, how often did doctors, nurses, or other health professionals make sure you understood the things you needed to do to take care of your health? Conclusion- Evaluation of cancer risk perceptions and patient-centered communication provide useful guidance for the development of interventions for Black women. Future research should target Black women that have misperceptions of  cancer risk and limited knowledge for cervical cancer awareness. Clinicians should practice communication reflective of patient-centeredness to promote cervical cancer screening behavior.    

Citation Format: Adebola Adegboyega, Amanda Wiggins, Mark Dignan. Association between cancer risk perception and patient-centered communication and cervical cancer screening behavior among African Americans (AA) and Sub-Saharan African immigrant (SAI) women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C106.