Women with serious mental illness significantly less likely to receive cancer screening

Women who reported symptoms of serious psychological distress - such as feelings of hopelessness and depression - during the past 30 days were 41 percent less likely to have received Pap tests during the preceding two-year period, University of Illinois researcher Xiaoling Xiang found.

These women also were 38 percent and 35 percent less likely to have received mammograms and clinical breast exams, respectively, during that same period of time.

Xiang examined three years of data for more than 17,000 women who participated in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

More than 1,300 women in the sample, who ranged in age from 40 to 74, had symptoms of serious psychological distress, an indicator of mental illness that is serious enough to cause significant impairment and require treatment.

Prior research has suggested that the mentally ill tend to utilize outpatient, inpatient and emergency services at much higher rates than the general population.

"However, people with serious mental illness are estimated to die an average of 14 to 32 years earlier than the average person," said Xiang, a doctoral candidate in social work. "There's a big health disparity there. Their frequent contact with the health care system opens up opportunities for providers to implement targeted interventions and patient education to improve utilization of preventive services."

The higher mortality rates among the mentally ill, despite their greater use of certain types of medical services, may point to a "quality of care problem," Xiang said. "If you have to use the emergency room multiple times each year, but you're not receiving routine screenings and other preventive care, it might be because your health care needs are not being adequately met."


http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-11-women-mental-illness-cancer-screenings.html