Encouraging screening mammograms. Results of the 1988 Connecticut Breast Cancer Detection Awareness Campaign.
Connecticut's first Breast Cancer Detection Awareness Campaign during April 1988 offered low-cost screening mammograms ($50) to women over age 34 who had not been previously examined. Following a brief mass media campaign, some 2,500 inquiries about the program were received over a seven-day period, resulting in 1,243 examinations of the detection of eight breast cancers. Program participants cited an enhanced awareness that a baseline examination was due, and knowledge about the availability of low-cost services as reasons for obtaining a screening mammogram. Their reasons for not having been previously screened included not having been advised by physicians to have such an examination (28%); high cost (37%); and failure to recognize the importance of periodic screening (21%). By contrast, relatively few women expressed concern about the test procedure (12%), or fear of finding cancer (9%) as reasons for not being screened previously. These findings underscore the benefit of cancer control efforts to reduce access and information barriers to regular use of mammography by women.
Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington.
D I
DI
Gregorio
S
S
Kegeles
C
C
Parker
S
S
Benn
D000328:Adult; D003237:Connecticut; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged