Underusers of mammogram screening: stage of adoption in five U.S. subpopulations. The NCI Breast Cancer Screening Consortium.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this report is to describe the characteristics of women ages 50 to 80 who do not follow commonly accepted mammography screening guidelines. It provides unique understanding of the robustness of characteristics of underusers across five different U.S. subpopulations.


METHODS
The data are from the baseline surveys of the five studies of the NCI Breast Cancer Screening Consortium. Stage of adoption of mammography screening and other characteristics of underusers are presented. Polytomous logistic regression analysis was used to explore multivariable associations with stage of adoption in each study site.


RESULTS
The five samples studied by the Consortium range in size from 259 to 4,477 women (n = 11,292). The relationship of the perceptions of the pros and cons of mammography with stage of adoption was strikingly similar across the five samples. Other variables consistently associated with stage were a recent receipt of a breast physical examination and recommendation for mammography by a physician.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest a need to encourage regular screening through effective communication from a health care provider. Intervention messages should be designed to increase the pros of mammography, decrease the cons, and highlight these differentially according to the woman's stage of adoption.
Stoddard
A M
AM
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003, USA.
Rimer
B K
BK
Lane
D
D
Fox
S A
SA
Lipkus
I
I
Luckmann
R
R
Avrunin
J S
JS
Sprachman
S
S
Costanza
M
M
Urban
N
N
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008327:Mammography / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States