title: Socio-demographic correlates of participation in mammography: a survey among women aged between 35- 69 in Tehran, Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The rates of breast cancer have increased over the past two decades, and this raises concern about physical, psychological and social well-being of women with breast cancer. Further, few women really want to do breast cancer screening. We here investigated the socio-demographic correlates of mammography participation among 400 asymptomatic Iranian women aged between 35 and 69.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the four outpatient clinics of general hospitals in Tehran during the period from July through October, 2009. Bi-variate analyses and multi-variate binary logistic regression were employed to find the socio- demographic predictors of mammography utilization among participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rate of mammography participation was 21.5% and relatively high because of access to general hospital services. More women who had undergone mammography were graduates from university or college, had full-time or part-time employment, were insured whether public or private, reported a positive family history of breast cancer, and were in the middle income level (P <0.01).The largest number of participating women was in the age range of 41 to 50 years. The results of multivariate logistic regression further showed that education (95%CI: 0.131-0.622), monthly income (95%CI: 0.038-0.945), and family history of breast cancer (95%CI: 1.97-9.28) were significantly associated (all P <0.05)with mammography participation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most important issue for a successful screening program is participation. Using a random sample, this study found that the potential predictor variables of mammography participation included a higher education level, a middle income level, and a positive family history of breast cancer for Iranian women after adjusting for all other demographic variables in the model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Development Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Asnarulkhadi Abu
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Samah
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahmadian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008327:Mammography / Q000523:psychology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors