Impact of women's experiences during mammography on adherence to rescreening (United States).

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship between womens' experiences during mammography and their likelihood of being rescreened after receiving a negative or benign mammogram.

METHODS

Telephone interview and medical record data were collected from a random sample of enrollees from four states in a national screening program targeting uninsured and underinsured women at least 30 months after they had undergone an index mammogram in 1997. We calculated 30-month rescreening rates by prior mammography characteristics including pain and embarrassment, worry, convenience of appointment time, treatment by staff, and financial considerations.

RESULTS

Of the 2,000 women in the sampling frame, 1,895 (93.6%) were located, 1,685 (88.6%) were interviewed and 1,680 provided data required for our analysis. Overall, 81.5% of the women had undergone rescreening. More than 90% of the women reported being 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with treatment by facility staff, facility location and wait time during the appointment. Statistically significant decreased rescreening rates were seen for women who reported feeling embarrassed and for women reporting dissatisfaction with ability to schedule a convenient appointment time.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that providing additional reassurance and privacy may increase rescreening rates.