CORRELATES OF MAMMOGRAPHY AMONG WOMEN WITH LOW AND HIGH SOCIOECONOMICRESOURCES

Background. Although screening mammography rates have increased, even women with higher incomes and more formal education do not all obtain the exam. This study examined why a modest proportion of higher income /higher education women do not get screened and, conversely, why a sma ll percentage of lower income/lower education women do receive screeni ng. Methods. Data were from the 1990 National Health Interview Survey of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. A total of 3,014 women, ag es 40-75, were in the sample. Low-resource women had incomes of less t han $20,000 and less than a high school diploma. High-resource women h ad incomes of $30,000 or more and at least some college education. Res ults. Correlates of screening status were similar for both resource gr oups. Recency of Papanicolaou test, recency of clinical breast exam, a nd regular breast self-examination were associated with higher rates o f screening. Four or more persons in a household were associated with lower rates. Among low-resource women, incomes of $10,000-$19,999 were associated with higher likelihood of screening. An income of $50,000 or more was associated with screening among high-resource women. Concl usions. The fact that several variables were important for both resour ce groups suggests that targeted interventions could have benefits acr oss a wide population. Nonetheless, in the high-resource group, 2-year rates never exceeded 80% and repeated screening never exceeded 60%. R ates for low-resource women were over 30% lower. Medical care utilizat ion data did not differ between the two resource groups sufficiently t o account for the discrepant rates. Improving screening rates in both resource groups remains a major challenge. (C) 1995 Academic Press, In c.