Abstract
A106
Objective: Although Hispanics represent the fasting growing population in the United States, there is limited data on the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology in this group. We evaluated the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology in Hispanic women screened in a health fair setting. Materials and Methods: A retrospective chart review of all women presenting for health care screening at the Atlanta Grady Health System (GHS) sponsored Dia de la Mujer Latina (DML) health fair in 2005 and 2006 was performed. Women underwent a full physical exam and, where appropriate, liquid based cervical cytology screening. The results from the fair were compared to an outpatient clinic population of similar socio-economic status seen at the GHS during the first fiscal quarter. Patient’s within the GHS were further stratified to low-risk (LR; patients presenting to primary care clinics) or high-risk (HR; patients referred to the hospital-based gynecology clinic for a specified problem) groups. Statistics were performed with the SPSS statistical package. Results: One hundred ninety-one women in 2005 and 199 women in 2006 presented to the DML health fair and received satisfactory cervical cytology screening. The mean age of patients presenting to the health fair who underwent a pap smear in 2005 and 2006 were 37.3 (range 17-80) and 35.7 (range 11-73), respectively. The prevalence of an abnormal pap smear was 7.9% in 2005 and 7.0% in 2006. No patients had cervical cancer. There were no differences in the rate of abnormal pap smears when comparing the DML 2005 cohort to the LR 2005 (7.9% vs. 9.2%, p=0.53) or HR 2005 (7.9% vs. 10.9%, p=0.18) GHS populations. For 2006, the DML cohort had significantly lower rates of abnormal pap smears when compared to the LR 2006 (7.0% vs. 13.4%, p=0.01) and HR 2006 (7.0% vs. 14.5%, p=0.004) GHS groups. When combining the results for 2005 and 2006, the DML group had a significantly lower rate of abnormal pap smears than both the LR (7.4% vs. 10.6%, p=0.05) and HR (7.4% vs. 12.2%, p=0.006) GHS populations. Conclusions: Hispanic patients screened at a health fair have a lower rate of abnormal pap smears compared to patients of similar socio-economic status presenting to a medical or hospital clinic. Outreach in a health fair setting may provide an opportunity to detect cervical dysplasia at an earlier stage and allow for patient education to facilitate modification of high-risk behaviors.
First AACR International Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities-- Nov 27-30, 2007; Atlanta, GA