173 Delving into Sociocultural Influences in Access to Care in Black Women and Latinas with Uterine Fibroids

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Uterine fibroids (UF) are a significant public health concern with a lifetime prevalence of over 70% in all women, however Black/African American women (BW) are disproportionately affected by UF, and Hispanic/Latinas (HL) mostly understudied. Our goal is to investigate sociocultural influences on menstrual and UF experiences of BW and HL with UF. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We have taken a community engaged research approach and partnered with the Fibroid Foundation, a patient UF advocacy group. Following IRB approval, the study was advertised on the Fibroid Foundation’s various social media platforms, such as Instagram. Screening began on October 25, 2022, the screening survey included participants’ contact information, preferred time of contact, time zone, and confirming identifying as a BW and/or HL diagnosed with UF. Ensuring eligibility, we plan to conduct semi-structured interviews for participants. The interviews will be conducted via phone or video call based on participant preference. The interviews will be sent for transcription to an external HIPAA compliant vendor then analyze the interviews for a priori and new themes using traditional content analysis. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: As of November 13, 2022, over 200 participants have completed the screening survey with a total of 133 (66.5%) being eligible to participate. The demographics are the following: 109 (82%) Black women, 14 (10.5%) Latinas, 4 (3%) Afro-Latinas, and 6 (4.5%) did not disclose ethnoracial identity. The participants were sent a consent form and will be interviewed. We anticipate achieving our goal of interviewing a minimum of 60 women for this study. Based on our previous research, we expect to find sociocultural influences leading to negative experiences of menstruation that affect access to care for UF. We also expect women will lack sufficient and accurate information regarding menstrual symptoms and UF. We additionally anticipate seeing delays in UF diagnosis. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: There is a need to discuss sociocultural influences around menstruation as negative perceptions lead to delayed diagnosis of UF and can be translated to other gynecological diseases, such as endometriosis and endometrial and ovarian cancer. This suite of female-specific conditions all share increased disparity in historically minoritized women.