Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 1998 Apr;13(4):230-3.
doi: 10.1046/j.1525-1497.1998.00072.x.

Intervention to increase mammography utilization in a public hospital

T C Davis  1 , H J Berkel, C L Arnold, I Nandy, R H Jackson, P W Murphy
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Intervention to increase mammography utilization in a public hospital

T C Davis et al. J Gen Intern Med. 1998 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: To study the effects of three approaches to increasing utilization of screening mammography in a public hospital setting in Northwest Louisiana.

Design: Randomized intervention study.

Population: Four hundred forty-five women aged 40 years and over, predominantly low-income and with low literacy skills, who had not had a mammogram in the preceding year.

Intervention: All interventions were chosen to motivate women to get a mammogram. Group 1 received a personal recommendation from one of the investigators. Group 2 received the recommendation plus an easy-to-read National Cancer Institute (NCI) brochure. Group 3 received the recommendation, the brochure, and a 12-minute interactive educational and motivational program, including a soap-opera-style video, developed in collaboration with women from the target population.

Measurements and main results: Mammography utilization was determined at 6 months and 2 years after intervention. A significant increase (p = .05) in mammography utilization was observed after the intervention designed in collaboration with patients (29%) as compared with recommendation alone (21%) or recommendation with brochure (18%) at 6 months. However, at 2 years the difference favoring the custom-made intervention was no longer significant.

Conclusions: At 6 months there was at least a 30% increase in the mammography utilization rate in the group receiving the intervention designed in collaboration with patients as compared with those receiving the recommendation alone or recommendation with brochure. Giving patients an easy-to-read NCI brochure and a personal recommendation was no more effective than giving them a recommendation alone, suggesting that simply providing women in a public hospital with a low-literacy-level, culturally appropriate brochure is not sufficient to increase screening mammography rates. In a multivariate analysis, the only significant predictor of mammography use at 6 months was the custom-made intervention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mammography utilization. Total number of women who had a mammogram at 6 months was 101 (22.7%) of 445 and at 24 months 165 (37.1 %) of 445.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Breen N, Kessler L. Changes in the use of screening mammography: evidence from the 1987 and 1990 National Health Interview Surveys. Am J PubIic Health. 1993;83:948–54. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rakowski W, Rimer BK, Bryant SA. Integrating behavior and intention regarding mammography by respondents in the 1990 National Health Interview Survey of Health Promotion and Disease. Public Health Rep. 1994;84:62–7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Calle EE, Flanders WD, Thun MJ, Martin LM. Demographic predictors of mammography and Pap smear screening in US women. Am J Public Health. 1993;83:53–60. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rimer BK, Trock B, Engstrom PF, Lerman C, King E. Why do some women get regular mammograms? Am J Prev Med. 1991;7:697–74. - PubMed
    1. Zapka JG, Stoddard AM, Constanze JE, Greene HL. Breast cancer screening by mammography utilization and associated factors. Am J Public Health. 1989;79:1499–502. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types