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Breast cancer screening interventions in selected counties across US regions

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Abstract

Objectives

To determine the types of, and the populations targeted by interventions implemented to increase breast cancer screening rates in counties with large African American populations across different US regions.

Methods

A brief questionnaire was administered by e-mail to county representatives from 33 states from October 2008 through March 2009. Responses were obtained from 33% of 203 targeted counties.

Results

Most counties (>80%) reported interventions for African American women and for women with low income. Women were exposed to different kinds of interventions depending on where they lived. Most counties in the Northeast (93%), Southwest (82%), and Midwest (100%) implemented interventions that provided free or low cost mammograms. Counties in the Southeast (83%) were more likely to report education interventions. Counties from the Southwest reported using a variety of interventions to encourage breast cancer screening.

Conclusion

In this selected group of counties, different types of interventions were used to increase breast cancer screening in minority and disadvantaged women. Interventions implemented were similar to those shown in the literature to be effective in increasing screening rates in specific populations. Future research should examine the use of screening interventions in a larger sample of US counties.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support received through a grant from the National Cancer Institute (U54 CA118948). The authors acknowledge and are grateful to participants for the time spent in completing the survey.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Services Administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue S., Birmingham, AL, 35294-1270, USA

    Shamly Austin

  2. Division of Preventive Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue S., MT 617, Birmingham, AL, 35294-4410, USA

    Michelle Y. Martin

  3. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College, 1005 Dr. D.B. Todd Jr. Blvd, Nashville, TN, 37208-3599, USA

    Robert S. Levine

  4. Division of Preventive Medicine and Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education (COERE), University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Avenue S., MT 636, Birmingham, AL, 35294-4410, USA

    Maria Pisu

Authors
  1. Shamly Austin
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  2. Michelle Y. Martin
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  3. Robert S. Levine
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  4. Maria Pisu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Pisu.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Survey of breast cancer screening programs
Full size table

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Austin, S., Martin, M.Y., Levine, R.S. et al. Breast cancer screening interventions in selected counties across US regions. Cancer Causes Control 21, 2165–2172 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9636-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9636-0

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