Patient-centered communication and breast and cervical cancer screening in the US health information national trends survey

Objective: To examine the relationship between high-quality patient-centered communication (PCC) and breast and cervical cancer screening behaviors.Methods: We used the 2017–2020 cycles of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS-5). Participants were asked to report the quality of PCC at past-year healthcare visits using a 7-item scale. We used survey-weighted Wald tests and multivariable logistic regression to evaluate differences in up-to-date (UTD) breast or cervical cancer screening by overall PCC and individual measures.Results: 7,040 participants were eligible, 79% of respondents reported high-quality PCC. High-quality PCC was positively associated with UTD breast cancer screening (86% vs. low-quality – 76%, p = .002). For UTD breast cancer screening, participants reporting they ‘understood the next steps’ was the most important single PCC item (86% vs. 70%, p = .002). There was a smaller difference by PCC overall for UTD cervical cancer screening (86% high-quality vs. 80% low-quality, p = .04), with reporting ‘feeling involved in decisions’ and that providers paid attention to ‘feelings and emotions’ individually significant.Conclusions: High-quality PCC was significantly associated with breast and cervical cancer screening. The association between quality PCC and screening use varies, with different communication items emerging for cervical and breast cancer screening, highlighting potential gaps in PCC screening approaches in primary care settings.