Women who are civically engaged have higher rates of breast cancer screening, suggest findings published July 14 in Cancer.
Researhcers led by Jordan Baeker Bispo, PhD, from the American Cancer Society (ACS) found higher prevalence of breast screening in women who voted, attended a public meeting, or volunteered compared to those who did not.
“We really think that these findings underscore the value of programming that compare the delivery of both civic health and public health or disease prevention messaging,” Bispo told AuntMinnie.
Prior research shows how breast cancer participation is negatively impacted by several socioeconomic barriers pertaining to income and education, as well as race and ethnicity.
The researchers also noted that civic engagement is an understudied factor in this area. Previous studies suggest that civic engagement is favorably linked to several mental and physical health outcomes, though few studies have examined civic engagement in relation to cancer screening.
Bispo and colleagues used data from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey to study potential connections between civic engagement and breast cancer screening. They used yes/no indicators of participation in the most recent local election, past-year public meeting attendance, and past-year volunteering to measure civic engagement.
Jordan Baeker Bispo, PhD, discusses the importance of breast imaging facilities in working with community groups to boost breast cancer screening.
Final analysis included data from 5,733 women eligible for breast cancer screening who responded to the survey.
In adjusted models, women who voted, attended a public meeting, or volunteered had a higher prevalence of past-year screening compared to those who did not. And women who participated in two or more measures of civic engagement showed the strongest associations with screening.
|
Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) among civically engaged women who receive breast cancer screening |
|
|
Measure of civic engagement |
aPR |
|
No civic engagement |
1 (reference) |
|
Voted |
1.18 |
|
Attended a public meeting |
1.08 |
|
Volunteered |
1.11 |
|
Participated in two or more measures |
1.26 |
In stratified models, the team found positive associations across subgroups, with the strongest being for women with higher levels of education.
For women engaged in two or more civic activities, past-year screening was 47% higher for those with a high school education or less (aPR = 1.47) while being 14% and 18% higher for those with some college or a college degree, respectively (aPRs = 1.14, 1.18).
Finally, about 68% of women who voted reported getting a mammogram in the past year, compared to 58% of those who didn’t vote.
Bispo said the team is looking at opportunities to involve longitudinal data toward perspective associations between civic engagement and cancer screening over the long term.
“We’re also excited about opportunities to bring in data on contextual factors that might vary at different geographic levels that aren’t available publicly,” she told AuntMinnie. “We’re really eager to find ways to expand the data that we use to look at these associations.”
She added that these factors may include voting policies or civic infrastructure that may be captured at the local levels.
Read the full study here.
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