Disparities related to socioeconomic status and access to medical care remain in the United States among women who never had a mammogram.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined whether disparities in mammography use between women of differing socioeconomic status (SES; income and education) and varying access to medical care (healthcare insurance and routine medical check-up) remained over time despite overall increased breast cancer screening.


METHODS
Analysis of changes over time were made using data from the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 53,846 women 50-69 years of age. Women who reported that they never had a mammogram were compared with those who ever had a mammogram. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine whether and to what extent disparities between subgroups of women changed over time.


RESULTS
The percentage of women 50-69 years of age who had never had a mammogram declined 65% from 22.1% in 1992 to 7.7% in 2000. Racial and ethnic differences in mammography prevalence disappeared over time. However, disparities among women of differing SES and among those with varying access to medical care remained based on multivariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite a substantial reduction in the proportion of women who had never had a mammogram among women 50-69 years of age from 1992 to 2000, disparities in use of mammography among the various population subgroups persisted.
Schootman
Mario
M
Division of Health Behavior Research, Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63108, USA. mschootm@im.wustl.edu
Jeffe
Donna B
DB
Reschke
Anat H
AH
Aft
Rebecca L
RL
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008327:Mammography / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States