BACKGROUND: The Edinburgh randomised trial of breast-cancer screening recruited women aged 45-64 years from 1978 to 1981 (cohort 1), and those aged 45-49 years during 1982-85 (cohorts 2 and 3). Results based on 14 years of follow-up and 270,000 woman-years of observation are reported. METHODS: Breast-cancer mortality rates in the intervention group (28,628 women offered screening) were compared with those in the control group (26,026) with adjustment for socioeconomic status (SES) of general medical practices. Rate ratios were derived by means of logistic regression for the total trial population and for women first offered screening while younger than 50 years. Analyses were by intention to treat. FINDINGS: Initial unadjusted results showed a difference of just 13% in breast-cancer mortality rates between the intervention and control groups (156 deaths [5.18 per 10,000] vs 167 [6.04 per 10,000]; rate ratio 0.87 [95% CI 0.70-1.06]), but the results were influenced by differences in SES by trial group. After adjustment for SES, the rate ratio was 0.79 (95% CI 0.60-1.02). When deaths after diagnosis more than 3 years after the end of the study were censored the rate ratio became 0.71 (0.53-0.95). There was no evidence of heterogeneity by age at entry and no evidence that younger entrants had smaller or delayed benefit (rate ratio 0.70 [0.41-1.20]). No breast-cancer mortality benefit was observed for women whose breast cancers were diagnosed when they were younger than 50 years. Other-cause mortality rates did not differ by trial group when adjusted for SES. INTERPRETATION: Our findings confirm results from randomised trials in Sweden and the USA that screening for breast cancer lowers breast-cancer mortality. Similar results are reported by the UK geographical comparison, UK Trial of Early Detection of Breast Cancer. The results for younger women suggest benefit from introduction of screening before 50 years of age.
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Comment In: Lancet. 1999 Jun 5;353(9168):1896-710371561
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services implemented the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1990 incooperation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The system gathers information about the health-related lifestyle choices of Alaskan adults related to leading causes of death such as heart disease, cancer and injury. The program is part of an ongoing national data collection system. Results are analyzed each year to improve our understanding of Alaskanhealth habits and to measure progress toward national and state health objectives. This report summarizes survey findings from1991 to 1996 and compares the results to selected national health objectives presented in the Healthy People 2000 publication.
BACKGROUND: The aim was to investigate compliance by ethnic groups to the mammography screening programme in the City of Copenhagen over six years and to look at developments over time. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Mammography screening has, since 1 April 1991, been offered free of charge to all women between 50 and 69 years of age in the City of Copenhagen. Data on women born in Poland, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and Pakistan divided into five-year groups were compared to that of women born in Denmark and all other foreign-born women. Data from 1991 to 1997 were grouped according to the mammography performed, the offer refused, or non-appearance. RESULTS: Whereas 71% of Danish-born women accepted mammography, compliance by foreign-born women was significantly lower. The offer was accepted by 36% of Pakistanis, 45% of Yugoslavians, 53% of Turks, and 64% of Poles. Compliance fell in all ethnic groups with advancing age. Of the Danish women, 16% failed to keep the appointment. The corresponding percentages were 52 for Pakistanis, 48 for Yugoslavians, 41 for Turks, and 23 for Poles. The proportion of women who actively refused the offer was similar in all groups. The number of invited women fell during the period. CONCLUSIONS: The lower participation of women from the countries under study might have various explanations: among them the language barrier, procedure-related factors, and a lower incidence of breast cancer in the countries of origin.
The goal of this study was to identify measures to facilitate access to the Quebec Breast Cancer Screening Program for women with activity limitations, considering the barriers to screening uptake in that population.
The study was carried out in three stages. First, 124 semi-structured interviews were conducted in five regions of Quebec with five groups of key informants. The content analysis lead to the identification of 64 proposals, which were submitted to 31 experts through a two-round Delphi survey process. Finally, consultations were held with 11 resource people to determine which decision-making levels (local, regional, provincial) could play a key role in implementing the proposals.
A strong consensus (=80%) was achieved for 25 proposals seen as highly relevant and feasible.
The implementation of such proposals could substantially improve access to screening, given the prevalence of activity limitations in the age group targeted by the program.
The purpose of this study is to determine if access to medical care and utilization of cancer screenings differs between women in the United States and Canada. This study examined this question by comparing women in Canada to women in the United States who have insurance coverage and those who do not.
This study used data from the 2002/03 Joint Canada United States Survey of Health and examined access to medical care and cancer screenings. A binary probit model was used to address several measures of access to medical care and cancer screening utilization.
This study finds five significant differences between insured American and Canadian women. Canadian women are better off in terms of ever having a mammogram, having a regular doctor, and having access to needed medicine, but fare worse in terms of having had a recent mammogram and having perceived unmet healthcare needs. With the exception of having recent mammograms, there is no statistical difference between uninsured and insured American women.
Although this study does not show that one group is strictly better off, it does show that there are significant differences between the two groups of women.
Experiencing a false-positive screening mammography can cause considerable psychosocial distress. The Consequences of Screening - Breast Cancer questionnaire (COS-BC parts 1 and 2), recently developed in Denmark, is the only condition-specific questionnaire for measuring short- and long-term psychosocial consequences of false-positive mammographic screening. Additional studies are needed to further test the COS-BC before use across cultures. Furthermore, studies have suggested that the consequences of false-positive screening results are partly common across cancer screening settings, although this hypothesis remains largely untested.
This study (i) assesses content validity of a Swedish version of the COS-BC, (ii) tests whether items expressing long-term consequences of false-positive lung cancer screening results are relevant in a breast cancer screening context and (iii) explores the usefulness of taking results from Rasch analyses of the source version as an aid in questionnaire translation and adaptation.
Following dual-panel translation, content validity was assessed through qualitative interviews with representatives of the target population and the content validity index (CVI). Item locations and Rasch model fit of the source questionnaires were considered in the translation and assessment process.
The COS-BC items were generally found relevant and provided coverage of the target construct. Content validity was supported also for nine of 10 lung cancer screening items. Scale CVI values were =0.81. Previous Rasch data were useful in facilitating translation and assessing item content validity. The resulting Swedish version of the COS-BC parts 1 and 2 consists of 34 and 23 items, respectively.
This study illustrates the value of methodological triangulation and use of data from previous Rasch analyses in questionnaire translation and adaptation. We found support for the hypothesis that consequences of false-positive screening are common across cancer screening settings. Psychometric properties of the Swedish COS-BC remain to be established.
This study compares adherence to breast and ovarian cancer screening recommendations among a population cohort of women at familial risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer. This cross-sectional study included 1039 first-degree female relatives without breast cancer identified from the Ontario site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry. We compared breast and ovarian cancer screening behaviors, using a telephone-administered questionnaire among three groups of women defined by their familial risk (high, moderate, and low) of breast and/or ovarian cancer. Associations between screening behaviors and familial risk were assessed using multinomial regression models adjusted by familial clustering. Women, 40-49 years of age, at moderate or high familial risk were significantly more likely to have had a screening mammogram within the past 12 months [odds ratio (OR): 2.80; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.40-5.58], and women of less than 50 years of age were more likely to have a clinical breast examination (OR: 1.84; 95% CI: 1.02-3.31) compared with women at low familial risk. Compared with women at low or moderate familial risk, women at high familial risk were significantly more likely to have ever had a genetic test for the BRCA 1/2 genes (OR: 2.67; 95% CI: 1.76-4.05). Although the overall level of adherence among high-risk women is suboptimal in the community, women at a higher familial risk are adhering more often to cancer screening recommendations than women at a lower familial risk.
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Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK. susan.hudson@lshtm.ac.uk.
Fully automated assessment of mammographic density (MD), a biomarker of breast cancer risk, is being increasingly performed in screening settings. However, data on body mass index (BMI), a confounder of the MD-risk association, are not routinely collected at screening. We investigated whether the amount of fat in the breast, as captured by the amount of mammographic non-dense tissue seen on the mammographic image, can be used as a proxy for BMI when data on the latter are unavailable.
Data from a UK case control study (numbers of cases/controls: 414/685) and a Norwegian cohort study (numbers of cases/non-cases: 657/61059), both with volumetric MD measurements (dense volume (DV), non-dense volume (NDV) and percent density (%MD)) from screening-age women, were analysed. BMI (self-reported) and NDV were taken as measures of adiposity. Correlations between BMI and NDV, %MD and DV were examined after log-transformation and adjustment for age, menopausal status and parity. Logistic regression models were fitted to the UK study, and Cox regression models to the Norwegian study, to assess associations between MD and breast cancer risk, expressed as odds/hazard ratios per adjusted standard deviation (OPERA). Adjustments were first made for standard risk factors except BMI (minimally adjusted models) and then also for BMI or NDV. OPERA pooled relative risks (RRs) were estimated by fixed-effect models, and between-study heterogeneity was assessed by the I2 statistics.
BMI was positively correlated with NDV (adjusted r = 0.74 in the UK study and r = 0.72 in the Norwegian study) and with DV (r = 0.33 and r = 0.25, respectively). Both %MD and DV were positively associated with breast cancer risk in minimally adjusted models (pooled OPERA RR (95% confidence interval): 1.34 (1.25, 1.43) and 1.46 (1.36, 1.56), respectively; I2 = 0%, P >0.48 for both). Further adjustment for BMI or NDV strengthened the %MD-risk association (1.51 (1.41, 1.61); I2 = 0%, P = 0.33 and 1.51 (1.41, 1.61); I2 = 0%, P = 0.32, respectively). Adjusting for BMI or NDV marginally affected the magnitude of the DV-risk association (1.44 (1.34, 1.54); I2 = 0%, P = 0.87 and 1.49 (1.40, 1.60); I2 = 0%, P = 0.36, respectively).
When volumetric MD-breast cancer risk associations are investigated, NDV can be used as a measure of adiposity when BMI data are unavailable.
