Immigrant Assimilation and Profiles of Breast Cancer Prevention Behaviors Among U.S. Immigrants

Federico Ghirimoldi , The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Gabriela Sanchez-Soto, University of Texas at San Antonio

Classical assimilation theories have been widely used by social scientists to model the health seeking behaviors of foreign-born and second generations of immigrants. However, a gap in the scientific literature exists; and it is connected with the utilization of the Segmented Assimilation Theory to comprehend the disparities in the prevention of breast cancer among the immigrant groups in the U.S. NHIS 2000-2015 data was employed. Latent Class models were fitted seeking to identify the existence of a latent class structure linked to the cancer screening attendance of immigrant women. Results from Latent Class models suggest three subgroups of immigrant women characterized by their use of cancer screening tests and socioeconomic characteristics. This research has shown that the assimilation trajectories of immigrants are highly related with a disparate access to economic and social resources, and eventually, these trajectories have an impact on the behaviors related to the prevention of breast cancer.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization