[The cost of breast cancer screening in France].
OBJECTIVE
This paper presents the cost of two decentralised breast cancer screening programmes in France, in the Bas-Rhin and the Bouches du Rhône districts. Materials and methods. The costs directly related to running the two screening programmes were collected for the time period 1990-1997. Only direct costs of each programme, excluding assessment and treatment costs, are included in the cost analysis. Costs are presented per screening period, per programme attender and per cancer detected by screening.


RESULTS
The screening programme costs an average of 397 francs per woman screened and 90,828 francs per cancer detected in the Bas-Rhin, and 379 francs and 76,159 francs, respectively, in the Bouches du Rhône.


CONCLUSIONS
These costs are high compared to those of existing centralised programmes. Further research is needed to investigate means of ensuring the optimal efficiency of these programmes. The results of this study may help guide future decisions on the further development of breast cancer screening in France.
Laboratoire d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Faculté de Médecine, 11, rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex.
S
S
Wait
P
P
Schaffer
B
B
Séradour
C
C
Guldenfels
B
B
Gairard
F
F
Morin
L
L
Piana
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*