Race/Ethnicity and the SES Gradient in Women’s Cancer Screening Utilization: A Case of Diminishing Returns

Shannon M. Monnat, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Using data from the 2008-2010 waves of Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, I examined whether the socioeconomic gradient for mammogram and Pap test utilization differs between white, black, Hispanic, and Asian women living in the U.S. Results demonstrate that black and Hispanic women are more likely than white women to have had recent cancer screenings. However, consistent with a diminishing returns perspective, results show that relative to white women, black and Hispanic women experience smaller increases in the probability of having a recent mammogram or Pap test with rising levels of SES. Asian women experience greater returns to SES relative to white women when it comes to mammogram utilization, but lower returns for Pap test utilization. Important cultural and social processes may occur within peer groups, families, and communities that have consequences for whether socioeconomic resources function similarly in fostering cancer screening across racially diverse groups of women.