Determinants of breast cancer screening uptake in Kurdish women of Iran.
BACKGROUND
Recently, a national breast cancer screening program has been introduced in Iran.The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of breast cancer screening uptake among Kurdish women, in order to identify those characteristics that may be potentially associated with the screening uptake.


METHODS
Through a cross sectional study, in 2014, a random sample of 561 women aged 40 years and older without the history of breast cancer and identified with Kurdish background in Baneh county, Iran, were recruited and interviewed by two trained interviewers. Data were collected using a valid and reliable researcher made questionnaire. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models with self-reported screening history as the dependent variable were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% of CI.


RESULTS
The mean age of women was 43.64 (SD = 5.17). The participation rate in the mammography program was 16.8% (95% CI: 13.7-19.8%). The lowest level of participation was found among women aged 60 and older (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.69), illiterate (OR = 0.63,95% CI: 0.40-0.99) and post-menopausal (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.35-0.91) women.


CONCLUSIONS
It was found that the level of breast screening uptake was low among Kurdish women compared to those reported in the previous studies. Designing participation enhancing interventions with a specific focus on older, illiterate and post-menopausal women are recommended.
Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Nayyereh
N
Aminisani
Department of Statistics and Epidemiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Roujin
R
Fattahpour
Tabriz Health Services Management Research Centre, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Saeed
S
Dastgiri
Road Traffic Injury Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Mohammad
M
Asghari-Jafarabadi
Clinical Psychiatry Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Hamid
H
Allahverdipour
Breast cancer screening; Determinants; Iran; Minority; Socioeconomic status