Join us for this month’s Epi/Bios Forum coming up on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2024 from 3:30pm-5:00pm.
This will be a virtual event. Forum Link: Microsoft Teams
Keynote Speaker: Mary Huynh
Speaker Bio:
Mary Huynh is the research project director for the NYPD reform initiative. Prior to joining ISLG, Mary was the director of the Office of Vital Statistics in the Bureau of Vital Statistics at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). She led a team of analysts and administrative staff in improving the data quality of vital event data, preparing data for analysis, providing internal and external access to data, and analyzing data for publications.
During this time, Mary taught courses on the life course perspective and the epidemiology of maternal and child health at the CUNY School of Public Health. Before her tenure at the DOHMH, Mary was an assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Lehman College, CUNY and served as the Program Director for the MPH Program. Her research focuses on the impact of structural racism on mortality and adverse maternal and birth outcomes. Mary has a BS in Biology from George Washington University and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh
Student Speaker: Danya Birnbaum
Speaker Bio: Danya received her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from CUNY SPH and has a background in healthcare data and analytics. She is passionate about health equity and is currently a Research Programmer at the Rand Corporation evaluating health disparities research.
Title: Predictors of Cervical Cancer Screening-Uptake Among Women Living with HIV In the Bronx, New York
Abstract:
- Objective: Understanding the sub-groups of women living with HIV (WLH) who do not receive timely cervical cancer (CC) screening is essential to targeting screening outreach and preventing CC deaths. Guidelines recommend that WLH receive annual CC screening. Among WLH in care at Montefiore Health System (MHS) in the Bronx, New York, we examined predictors of timely CC screening.
- Methods: WLH aged 21-65 years receiving HIV care at MHS between 2014 and 2019 (prior to changes to care-seeking caused by the COVID-19 pandemic) with at least 18 months of continuous care engagement were included in this retrospective cohort study. We examined on-time CC screening among WLH, defined as the presence of a cytology and/or HPV test in a patient’s record within 18 months of their entry date into the cohort. If a patient received cytology/HPV > 18 months after their date of entry or had no documentation of receiving either during follow-up, they were considered ‘under- screened.’ Demographic and clinical data from MHS were used to assess associations with on-time screening in bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models, and a stepwise modeling approach with an adding threshold of p<0.15 and a removing threshold of 0.20 was developed for the final multivariable model.
- Results: Of 2,553 WLH in care at MHS from 2014-19, 52.9% (95% CI 50.9, 54.8) (N=1,350) received on-time CC screening. In the final multivariable model, WLH whose HIV transmission category was coded as people who inject drugs (PID) relative to non-PIDs [aOR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.75] and those with unsuppressed HIV viral load (VL) at any time during the period of observation (VL >1000 copies/mL vs. <100 copies/mL) [aOR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.89] were less likely to have received on-time CC screening. WLH who had received hormonal contraception during follow-up [aOR: 2.17; 95% CI: 1.74, 2.71] were more likely to have received on-time CC screening.
- Conclusions: Half of WLH in care were under-screened for cervical cancer and those with a history of injection drug use and with unsuppressed viral load were less likely to have been screened on-time. Targeted approaches are needed to ensure cervical cancer screening for all WLH.