Barriers impacting breast cancer screening during the COVID-19 pandemic among Hispanic women in New Jersey

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) N.J.), 2025-01
• Main Authors: Perez-Tucker, Raquel, Nelson, Anna P., Lee, Jerry W., Wiafe, Seth A., Handysides, Daniel G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-024-07199-4

Hispanic women in the United States have been identified as an ethnic group experiencing disproportionately higher mortality rates of breast cancer. These higher rates have been linked to contextual factors that delay breast cancer screening utilization. The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant disruption to obtaining breast cancer screening affecting utilization of these services especially among minorities. Our cross-sectional study utilized the socio-ecological model (SEM) as a framework to identify barriers influencing delayed utilization using a comprehensive self-administered survey, which was completed among 155 Hispanic and 147 non-Hispanic White women, aged 50 and older, and who resided in the state of New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer screening attitudes and the extent in which numerous barriers affected utilization of breast cancer screening services during the pandemic were assessed using logistic regression and factor analysis. The analysis confirmed barriers that included low socio-economic status, lack of health insurance, low education attainment, unemployment, limited access to health care services, cancer fatalism, fear of acquiring COVID-19, and linguistic barriers. The findings of this study validate the recommendation of using multi-pronged interventions based on the SEM framework to address both individual and systemic barriers to screening. Breast cancer screening education, resources to access health services and health insurance options may be applied to these vulnerable populations to reduce barriers and facilitate yearly breast cancer screening.