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Approaches to Breast Cancer Screening Among Primary Care Physicians in Rural Areas of Crete, Greece

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess levels of knowledge regarding breast cancer screening among primary care physicians in rural areas of Crete. A cross-sectional survey of 106 general practitioners and internists and 83 trainee general practitioners (GPs) employed as of October 2004 and practicing at 14 primary health centers in Crete was performed. It was a self-administered survey with 27 items exploring knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors concerning delivery of general preventive and cancer screening services. The main outcome measures were responses to four items on approaches to breast cancer screening practices. Overall response rate was 55% (primary care physicians (PCPs) = 53%; trainee GPs = 60%). Respondents demonstrated a limited awareness of international recommendations for breast cancer screening and exhibited marked variation in their responses to survey items. Agreement with current international guidelines ranged from 31% to 58% for the individual survey items. This survey revealed limited knowledge among PCPs to well-publicized breast cancer screening guidelines and variations in approaches to breast cancer early detection.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the general practitioners, internists, and physician trainees who participated in our research and contributed their time in answering the questionnaire.

Ethical Approval

All participants received written information about the study and provided informed consent to participate in the study. This research was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the University Hospital.

Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Head of Department of Social Work, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Maria Trigoni

  2. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Martin C. Mahoney

  3. Departments of Medicine and Health Behavior, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Martin C. Mahoney

  4. Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Martin C. Mahoney

  5. Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Joanna Moschandreas

  6. Department of Surgical Oncology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Dimitris Tsiftsis

  7. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Eygenios Koumantakis

  8. Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, School of Medicine of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Christos Lionis

  9. Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Maria Trigoni

Authors
  1. Maria Trigoni
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  2. Martin C. Mahoney
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  3. Joanna Moschandreas
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  4. Dimitris Tsiftsis
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  5. Eygenios Koumantakis
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  6. Christos Lionis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Trigoni.

Additional information

All the authors satisfied the criteria of the international committee of Medical Journal editors (http://www.icmge.org) and contributed equally to this work.

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Trigoni, M., Mahoney, M.C., Moschandreas, J. et al. Approaches to Breast Cancer Screening Among Primary Care Physicians in Rural Areas of Crete, Greece. J Canc Educ 26, 490–496 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-010-0186-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-010-0186-7

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