Social determinants keep women from getting mammograms [Video]

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Breast cancer causes more than 40,000 deaths among women each year in the United States. At the same time, a recent CDC study found that the more health-related social needs a woman faces — such as food insecurity or a lack of access to reliable transportation — the less likely she is to get a mammogram.

Only 65% of women aged 50 to 74, with three or more health-related social needs, are up to date with their mammograms, compared to 83.2% of women with no adverse social determinants of health.

According to the study, life dissatisfaction, social isolation, lost or reduced hours of employment, food stamps, a lack of reliable transportation, and cost were all strongly associated with not having had a mammogram within the last two years.

“Women with health-related social needs were less likely to get these lifesaving mammograms to screen for breast cancer,” said Dr. Debra Houry, …