Breast screening compliance following a statewide low-cost mammography project

Cancer Detect Prev. 1990;14(5):573-6.

Abstract

Public health educational campaigns can attract large numbers of one-time participants, but the impact on subsequent behavior remains unstudied. The American Cancer Society Texas Division, Inc. sponsored a statewide $50.00 mammography screening project in early 1987. More than 64,000 mammograms were completed at 306 centers; 37,000 screenees answered a 31-item questionnaire. Attitudes toward screening were assessed, and screening history was recorded. Eighteen months after the project, a follow-up questionnaire was sent to 1000 screenees; 411 women returned the questionnaires. In the year following the project, 51% of the women 50 years and older reported having a subsequent mammogram. Among the women in this group who had never had a mammogram prior to 1987, 42% had screening mammography repeated in the following year. These data show that media-based public education projects can be effective mechanisms for improving and maintaining compliance with mammography screening recommendations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Attitude to Health
  • Cost Control
  • Female
  • Health Promotion*
  • Humans
  • Mammography* / economics
  • Mass Screening* / economics
  • Middle Aged
  • Patient Compliance*
  • Texas