Patient navigation to improve breast cancer screening in Bosnian refugees and immigrants

Abstract

Refugee women have low breast cancer screening rates. This study highlights the culturally competent implementation and reports the outcomes of a breast cancer screening patient navigation program for refuge/immigrant women from Bosnia. Refugees/immigrant women from Bosnia age 40-79 were contacted by a Serbo-Croatian speaking patient navigator who addressed patient-reported barriers to breast cancer screening and, using individually tailored interventions, helped women obtain screening. The proportion of women up-to-date for mammography was compared at baseline and after 1-year using McNemar's Chi-Square test. 91 Serbo-Croatian speaking women were eligible for mammography screening. At baseline, 44.0% of women had a mammogram within the previous year, with the proportion increasing to 67.0% after 1-year (P = 0.001). A culturally-tailored, language-concordant navigator program designed to overcome specific barriers to breast cancer screening can significantly improve mammography rates in refugees/immigrants.