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Background: The Roma minority, Europe's largest ethnic minority, experiences significant disparities in living conditions and health outcomes compared to the non-Roma populations across the continent. Despite extensive documentation of the socio-economic challenges faced by the Roma, there is a notable lack of comparative research., Methods: This study aims to fill this gap by examining the differences in socio-economic characteristics, living conditions, and self-reported health status between Roma (R) and non-Roma (nR) women in in Hungary (HU), Romania (RO), and Slovakia (SK), providing a cross-country comparative analysis. Utilizing simple and multiple binary logistic models, our research analysed data collected from September 2020 to March 2022, involving 322 Roma and 294 non-Roma women in Hungary, 258 Roma and 183 non-Roma women in Romania, and 146 Roma and 163 non-Roma women in Slovakia., Results: Findings indicate significant associations between increased age (R:OR = 1.04[1.02,1.06], p < 0.001), (nR:OR = 1.04[1.02,1.05], p < 0.001) lower financial situation (R:OR = 2.05[1.01,4.18], p = 0.048) (nR:OR = 1.67[1.01,2.77], p = 0.047), and basic education level (R:OR = 3.60[1.29,10.08], p = 0.015) (nR:OR = 3.64[1.77,7.51], p < 0.001) with the likelihood of poor health status across both groups in Hungary. In Romania, increased age (OR = 1.04[1.02,1.06], p < 0.001) and basic education level (OR = 5.24[2.29,11.99], p < 0.001) were particularly predictive of poor health among non-Roma, while in Slovakia, age (OR = 1.05[1.02,1.07], p < 0.001) was a significant factor for Roma, and intermediate education level (OR = 2.68[1.16,6.20], p = 0.021) was for non-Roma. The study also found that a higher number of children (HU:OR = 1.35[1.12,1.63], p = 0.002), (RO:OR = 1.57[1.25,1.96], p < 0.001) and problems with housing comfort (RO:OR = 4.83[2.19,10.62], p = 0.015) and wall conditions (RO:OR = 2.81[1.22,6.46], p < 0.001) significantly impacted the health status of non-Roma women in Hungary and Romania. Conversely, an increase in household size was associated with a better health status among Roma women in Hungary (OR = 0.88[0.79,0.99]) and Slovakia (OR = 0.78[0.61,0.99])., Conclusion: By offering a novel comparative analysis, this study highlights the critical need for focused attention on the health disparities faced by Roma women, particularly those in a multiply disadvantaged situation due to their ethnic and socio-economic status., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Mózes, Takács, Ungvari and Feith.)

Introduction: To the present day, the prevalence and incidence of cervical cancer remains very significant. For disadvantaged groups such as the Roma, screening for the disease should be given increased attention, as members of this minority have lower access to health care and lower average health literacy., Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of cytological screening for cervical cancer among Hungarian-speaking Roma and non-Roma populations in Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, in relation to the possible influencing factors. We also investigated respondents' perceptions of the importance of cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. In this paper, we focus on presenting the data from Hungary in relation to the results from the other two countries. The study sample size was 1366., Method: Data were presented as mean ± SD and proportion. To compare Roma and non-Roma samples, the independent samples t-test was used. Cross tabulation with Pearson's chi-square test with calculating phi/Cramér's V effect size (p<0.05) was used to reveal association between ethnicity and studied variables., Results: In Hungary, a higher proportion of Roma women (p = 0.004) did not attend cytological screening for cervical cancer compared to non-Roma women, a difference confirmed in the other two countries. Non-Roma women attached greater importance to attendance at cervical cancer screening (p = 0.022). The Roma population aged 18-65 years had lower rates of annual cytological screening for cervical cancer compared to non-Roma in all age groups, while the annual screening rate decreased with age, regardless of ethnicity., Conclusion: Further health promotion to prevent cervical cancer in the Roma and non-Roma population would be necessary, regardless of national borders, specifically to address risk factors in all age groups, with a focus on young people, who are less aware of the risk, and older age groups, who mostly believe that the disease does not affect them due to their age. Orv Hetil. 2023; 164(36): 1416-1425.