Assessment of a breast cancer screening programme in Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran

A breast cancer screening programme was evaluated for approximately 10, 000 women aged 35 years and older. There were 67 cases of breast cancer. Highest rates of attendance were seen among younger women [35-44 years] and middle socioeconomic groups. Lowest rates were among those aged over 65 years and low socioeconomic groups. The rate of detection by self-examination was similar to that by health personnel examination. At all stages of screening, positive findings were most common among the high socioeconomic class. Attendance decreased steadily from first to last stages of serial screening. Although mammography is the most sensitive method of detection, because of its high cost we suggest establishing breast self-examination education programmes and encouraging women to self-examine.

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Lower attendance rates in immigrant versus non-immigrant women in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Programme

Journal of Medical Screening ◽

10.1177/0969141317733771 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 155-161 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Sameer Bhargava ◽

Kaitlyn Tsuruda ◽

Kåre Moen ◽

Ida Bukholm ◽

Solveig Hofvind

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Cancer Screening ◽

Breast Cancer Screening ◽

Screening Programme ◽

Immigrant Women ◽

Population Based ◽

Mammographic Screening ◽

Attendance Rates ◽

Breast Cancer Screening Programme ◽

Cancer Screening Programme

Objective The Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Programme invites women aged 50–69 to biennial mammographic screening. Although 84% of invited women have attended at least once, attendance rates vary across the country. We investigated attendance rates among various immigrant groups compared with non-immigrants in the programme. Methods There were 4,053,691 invitations sent to 885,979 women between 1996 and 2015. Using individual level population-based data from the Cancer Registry and Statistics Norway, we examined percent attendance and calculated incidence rate ratios, comparing immigrants with non-immigrants, using Poisson regression, following women's first invitation to the programme and for ever having attended. Results Immigrant women had lower attendance rates than the rest of the population, both following the first invitation (53.1% versus 76.1%) and for ever having attended (66.9% versus 86.4%). Differences in attendance rates between non-immigrant and immigrant women were less pronounced, but still present, when adjusted for sociodemographic factors. We also identified differences in attendance between immigrant groups. Attendance increased with duration of residency in Norway. A subgroup analysis of migrants' daughters showed that 70.0% attended following the first invitation, while 82.3% had ever attended. Conclusions Immigrant women had lower breast cancer screening attendance rates. The rationale for immigrant women's non-attendance needs to be explored through further studies targeting women from various birth countries and regions.

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