MAMMOGRAPHY SCREENING - HOW IMPORTANT IS COST AS A BARRIER TO USE

Objectives. Recent legislation will improve insurance coverage for scr eening mammography and effectively lower its cost to many women. Altho ugh cost has been cited as a barrier to use, evidence of the magnitude of its effect on use is limited. Methods. Mammography use in the past 2 years among women aged 50 to 75 residing in four suburban or rural counties in Washington State was estimated from 1989 survey data. Logi stic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratio of mammog raphy use as a function of economic and other variables. Within a resi dential area, averages were, used to measure the market price of mammo graphy and the time cost to obtain a mammogram. Results. Use was lower among women who faced a higher net price or who preferred to obtain a mammogram during weekend or evening hours and higher among women with higher incomes. Visiting no doctor regularly and smoking were predict ors of failure to use mammography, Conclusion. The effects of economic variables on mammography use are important and stable across subsets of the population, but they are modest in size.