PERCEPTIONS OF THE MAMMOGRAPHY EXPERIENCE

The 1993 projections for breast cancer indicate a morbidity of 183,000 women with a mortality rate of 18%. Mammography is one of three appro aches available for the early detection of breast cancer. However, und erutilization has been reported and attributed to pain associated with the procedure, the expense to the consumer; and lack of referral by p hysicians. Other reasons for the low utilization rates include fears o n the part of the woman of a positive diagnosis, radiation, and a poss ible mastectomy. This study provides an analysis of the responses of a convenience sample of 272 women, aged 30-90 years, to two open-ended questions about the mammography experience. The words and phrases wome n used to describe the mammography experience and the sensations exper ienced in their breasts during mammography were subjected to content a nalysis. The results of this study suggest that the word descriptors w omen use to describe their experience during mammography are highly in dividualistic and may not be totally captured by numeric or descriptiv e rating scales of pain intensity.