Cancer Information Disparities Between U.S.- and Foreign-Born Populations

Immigrant health is an important component of American public health. But relatively little is known about immigrants' cancer information use. Using the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data, this study examined potential disparities between foreign-born (n=563) and U.S.-born (n=4,830) populations in their access to and experience with cancer information. Logistic regressions showed that foreign-born Hispanics were less likely than the U.S.-born to have ever sought cancer information (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=.51). Foreign-born individuals overall were also less likely to have had somebody else look for cancer information for them (OR=.66). Compared with the U.S.-born, foreign-born individuals in general faced greater obstacles during the process of cancer information seeking (ORs=1.98-2.27). They were also less trusting of some important sources of health information (ORs=.50-.64), a pattern that was particularly pronounced among Hispanics (ORs=.20-.43). Implications of these disparities were explored through multiple linear regressions that revealed negative associations between cancer information use and undesirable cancer beliefs.