Associations between health-related social needs and colorectal cancer screening among United States Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic white adults

Objective To examine associations between five health-related social need (HRSN) domains and receipt of a clinician recommendation for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic White adults, and whether associations differed by race and ethnicity. Methods We pooled 2021 and 2023 National Health Interview Survey data (United States) for 1477 Hispanic/Latino and 5413 non-Hispanic White adults aged 45–75 not up to date on screening. The outcome was a clinician screening recommendation in the past 12 months. Five HRSNs were examined: educational need, food insecurity, housing instability, medical financial hardship, and public cash assistance. Survey-weighted logistic regression estimated adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), overall and by race and ethnicity. Results Very low food security (aOR 1.62; 95% CI 1.09, 2.40) and medical financial hardship (aOR 1.28; 95% CI 1.09, 1.49) were associated with higher odds of recommendation. Among Hispanic/Latino adults, low (aOR 2.12; 95% CI 1.04, 4.32) and very low food security (aOR 2.86; 95% CI 1.31, 6.23) were associated with recommendation; the food-by-race/ethnicity interaction was not significant ( p = 0.09). Conclusions Health-related social needs were not uniformly associated with reduced recommendation; food insecurity predicted higher recommendation among Hispanic/Latino adults.