Increasing mammography screening through inpatient education.
BACKGROUND
The reasons why women do not undergo regular screening mammograms have not been clearly defined. In this study, we addressed an educational intervention based on Health Belief Model constructs for 3 of the most common reasons why women do not participate in mammography screening: cost, fear, and lack of knowledge. The purpose of the project was to study whether an educational intervention addressing these factors could increase mammography screening among age-appropriate women who had not had a recommended mammogram within the previous 12 months.


METHODS
The educational intervention consisted of providing a tailored brochure addressing either the barrier of (1) cost, (2) fear, or (3) lack of information. Participants were hospital inpatients admitted for noncancer diagnoses. They were followed up approximately 3 months after hospital discharge to ascertain subsequent mammography utilization either before or after leaving the hospital.


RESULTS
Of the 272 women originally interviewed, 147 (54%) were reached for follow-up. Although there were no differences related to which mammography barrier was addressed, 42 (28.6%) reported that they had obtained a mammogram after the intervention.


CONCLUSIONS
These data suggest that a fairly simple, low-cost patient education intervention of brochure distribution can produce substantially increased patient awareness and consequent mammography utilization.
Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, USA.
Whitney
W
Boling
Larry
L
Laufman
Garrett R
GR
Lynch
Armin D
AD
Weinberg
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic