Do mammography screening programmes reach immigrant women?. A telephone survey of
seven European countries
Sammanfattning
Introduction
: Immigrant women residing in Norway have lower rates of breast
cancer, but the tumours’ are diagnosed at
a later stage, giving worse prognosis and
higher mortality rates compared with
Norwegian born women. The aim of this
study is to shed light on breast screening
programmes in Europe to see if women
from all ethnic groups have access to and
whether they participate in screening
programmes.
Methods
: A questionnaire was prepared
regarding participation in breast cancer
screening, including special considerations
for immigrant women. Contact persons at
European cancer screening programmes in
UK, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden,
Denmark and France were interviewed in
semi-structured phone interviews followed
up by a structured literature search.
Results
: Population based breast cancer
screening programmes were available
free of charge in six countries, with a
co-payment in Norway. Screening invitations
tions were written in the countries’ main
language. The participation rate in the
UK, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden,
Denmark and France varied between 72%
and 87%, independent of the percentage
of immigrants in the country. Compared
to women born in the country immigrant
women were thought to show a lower
participation rate in all national screening
programmes, though some countries work
through immigrant organizations to reach
more women from these groups.
Conclusion
: To reach all eligible women,
a combined approach, adapted to the target
population to ensure that all women
have the same chance for early diagnosis
and life-saving treatment, is needed.
Participation in organized programs for
breast cancer should be free of charge.