Objective: To find the view of Primary Care doctors in relation to the need for a community programme of breast cancer screening, its effectiveness and the criteria underlying its application.
Design: Crossover study.
Setting: Municipal districts of Ciutat Vella and Sant Martí, Barcelona.
Participants: General Practitioners (GPs) in the programme.
Intervention: A self-filled questionnaire. The questions sought the level of agreement with 11 statements concerning: importance as health problem, effectiveness of the programmes, target population and role of GP. Results were compared for: year of graduation, sex and type of centre.
Measurements and main results: Of 140 doctors, 110 (78.6%) replied. There was majority agreement with all the statements, especially so in: "Breast cancer is one of the three main causes of death in women in Barcelona"; "screening of 50-64-year old women should be recommended"; and "GPs must recommend screening to their patients".
Conclusion: The replies to the questionnaire indicated agreement with the programme's basic orientation, except for including 40 to 49-year old women in the programme, which the programme did not propose. Hopefully, this consensus will help Primary Care professionals become involved in the screening programme.