STATCAST – Week of October 7, 2019

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 42,000 women in the United States died of breast cancer in 2017, and foreign-born women in the U.S. have historically had higher breast cancer mortality rates than their U.S.-born peers. In an effort to reduce breast cancer mortality, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that women ages 50 to 74 get a mammogram every two years. This week NCHS released a new analysis on breast cancer screening among women born inside and outside the United States. The results show that overall, foreign-born women are less likely than U.S.-born women to have ever had a mammogram — 88% compared with 94%. These results hold no matter how long foreign-born women have lived in the U.S.

A separate study released this week by NCHS showed that even though racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are more likely to find it important that their health care provider share or understand their culture, they are less likely to be able to see such a provider, according to 2017 data from the National Health Interview Survey.

And finally, in a third study this week, NCHS analyzed 2010 to 2017 mortality data among people age 25 and older to determine death rates according to marital status. The study showed that death rates are lowest among married people, and have declined 7% among this group. Death rates are highest among widowed people age 25 and up, and have increased 2% over this time period.