IMPLEMENTING BREAST-CANCER SCREENING GUIDELINES - RESULTS OF THE ONTARIO HEALTH-STATUS SURVEY

Introduction: The Ontario Health Status Survey (OHS) was undertaken by the Ontario Ministry of Health in 1990 to provide data on factors rel ated to health and health service use in a province of 10 million inha bitants. OHS analyses for this report focused on patterns of breast sc reening behaviors in relation to physician contact and various sociode mographic and psychological variables. Methods: The OHS was a probabil ity sample survey using a multistage stratified cluster design to gath er household-level data. SUDAAN was used to obtain population estimate s for study variables. Data analyses were restricted to women 40 years of age and older. Results: Although over 85% of respondents reported contact with their physicians in the previous 12 months, most women di d not adhere to recommended breast screening guidelines. Educational a chievement, income adequacy, and smoking status were important factors explaining differences in screening behaviors. Conclusions: Physician s should not overlook opportunities to recommend mammography screening , where appropriate, and include breast examinations as part of regula r physical exams. The involvement of educationally or economically dis advantaged women in the design of appropriate recruitment strategies f or breast cancer screening would be informative. Medical Subject Headi ngs (MeSH): mammography, screening, breast, guidelines.