Associations between Spiritual Health Locus of Control, Perceived Discrimination and Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening for Muslim American Women in New York City

Barriers to cervical cancer screening faced by immigrant Muslim women: a systematic scoping review

BACKGROUND

Uptake for cervical cancer screening (CCS) is extremely low among immigrant women, particularly Muslim women, because of barriers related to religious values, beliefs, and fatalism. This scoping review aimed to summarize and analyze the findings of previous studies regarding perceived barriers to CCS among Muslim immigrant women.

METHODS

A search of electronic databases of peer-reviewed articles, including MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus was conducted. The following criteria were used for the selection of the articles: (a) the study population consisted of immigrant Muslim women, (b) CCS barriers were the main focus of the study, (c) the articles were original research articles, (d) the research was conducted within the last 10 years, and (d) the study was reported in English language.

RESULTS

Barriers included sociodemographic factors, economic, language, cognitive, and emotional reactions. The healthcare system was classified as a community barrier, whereas culture and religion were categorized as social barriers. Beliefs that becoming ill and dying is the will of Allah and that health problems are a punishment from God were considered to be major barriers to CCS among immigrant Muslim women.

CONCLUSION

Access to health service centers and CCS among Muslim immigrant women is challenging. Information dissemination by health care workers is needed to increase awareness of CCS and access to CCS service points among immigrant Muslim women. Physician recommendations to attend CCS also play an important role.

Addressing Disparities Related to Access of Multimodality Breast Imaging Services Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Despite technological advancements focused on reducing breast cancer mortality through early detection, there have been reported disparities in the access to these imaging services with underserved patient populations (including racial minority groups and patients of low socioeconomic status) showing underutilization compared to other patient groups. These underserved populations tend to have more advanced breast cancer presentations, in part due to delays in diagnosis resulting in later stage of disease presentation. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic declared in March 2020 has resulted in significant healthcare disruptions leading to extensive delays in breast imaging services which are expected to negatively impact breast cancer mortality long-term. Given the worsening disparity in breast cancer mortality among racial/ethnic minorities and financially disadvantaged groups, it is vital to address these disparity gaps with the goal of reducing the barriers to timely breast cancer diagnosis and addressing breast cancer mortality differences among breast cancer patients. Therefore, this review aims to provide a discussion highlighting the disparities related to breast imaging access, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on these disparities, current targeted interventions implemented in breast imaging practices to reduce these disparities, and future directions on the journey to reducing disparity gaps for breast imaging patients. Tackling the root cause factors of the persistent breast cancer-related disparities is critical to meeting the needs of patients who are disadvantaged and can lead to continued improvement in the quality of individualized care for patients who have higher breast cancer morbidity and mortality risks.