A review of breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening interventions in older women.
Although cancer-screening guidelines recommend periodic testing for women 50 years of age and older, these tests are underused. A search of databases identified 156 community-based breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening intervention studies published before April 2003. Most were conducted in the United States. More than half used randomization procedures or pre-post measures, and one third used both. Most reported significant intervention effects. Cervical and combined cervical and breast studies had higher rates of pre-post designs, and breast studies had the highest percentage using randomization. Although effective community-based breast and cervical interventions have been conducted, there is an urgent need for amplification of colorectal cancer screening.
Bowie
Janice V
JV
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. jbowie@jhsph.edu
Curbow
Barbara A
BA
Garza
Mary A
MA
Dreyling
Erin K
EK
Benz Scott
Lisa A
LA
McDonnell
Karen A
KA
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003256:Community Participation; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*