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Review
. 2023 Jan 18;15(3):604.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15030604.

Barriers to Breast Cancer-Screening Adherence in Vulnerable Populations

Laura Ponce-Chazarri  1 , Jose Antonio Ponce-Blandón  2 , Palmira Immordino  3 , Antonio Giordano  4   5 , Fátima Morales  1   4
Affiliations
Review

Barriers to Breast Cancer-Screening Adherence in Vulnerable Populations

Laura Ponce-Chazarri et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Breast cancer screening through periodic mammography has been effective in decreasing mortality and reducing the impact of this disease. However, adherence to screening does not meet the desired expectations from all populations. The main objective of this review is to explore the barriers that affect adherence to breast cancer-screening programs in vulnerable populations according to race and/or ethnicity in order to propose measures to reduce the lack of adherence. We conducted a search of publications in the PubMed Central and Scopus databases. The eligible criteria for the articles were as follows: original quantitative studies appearing in SJR- and/or JCR-indexed journals from 2016 to 2021 in English or Spanish. Most of them present common barriers, such as race/ethnicity (47%), low socioeconomic (35.3%) and educational levels (29.4%), no family history of cancer and being single (29.4%), medical mistrust and a health information gap (23.5%), lack of private health insurance (17.6%) and not having annual health checks (17.6%). The target populations with the lowest adherence were Black, Asian, Hispanic and foreign women. Implementing awareness campaigns focused on these populations should be promoted, as well as working on diversity, cultural acceptance and respect with healthcare workers, in order to improve breast cancer-screening adherence worldwide.

Keywords: adherence; barriers; breast cancer screening; ethnicity; race.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Scheme 1
Scheme 1
Flowchart of the article-selection process.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Barriers reported to race and/or ethnicity, according to number of articles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Variables associated with low socioeconomic level and lower adherence.
Scheme 2
Scheme 2
Proposed interventions and main barriers detected for breast cancer–screening program.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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