Health Literacy and Cervical Cancer Screening Among Mexican-American Women

Background: Health literacy is a requisite skill for making personal health and health care decisions. Low health literacy may contribute to lower cervical cancer screening rates and cervical cancer health disparities among Mexican-American women in South Texas. Objective: To explore older Mexican-American women's health literacy related to cervical cancer from the perspective of Zarcadoolas, Pleaseant, and Greer's health literacy model. Methods: We conducted five focus groups and seven individual interviews with 30 Mexican and Mexican-American women in South Texas. We analyzed demographic data using descriptive statistics and conducted thematic analysis of focus group and individual interview data. Key Results: Several themes reflected the domains of health literacy, including fundamental literacy (“speaking of language”), science literacy (cancer prevention), cultural literacy (“we are different”), civic literacy (the availability of “consejos” [advice]), and media literacy (e.g., “telenovelas” [soap-operas] teach a lot). In this article, we present findings related to culture and language under the domains of fundamental and cultural literacy. Conclusions: Mexican-American women's cultural values and language use may serve as both deterrents and incentives to cervical cancer screening. The meaning of words can be lost in translations. Health care providers can use this information to provide cervical cancer screening education congruent with Mexican-American's culture, language, and code switching.