Women's approaches to decision making about mammography

Health professionals have an obligation to understand women's decision maki ng about mammography and to advocate for their active participation in heal th care decision making. Although mammography is a major screening measure for the second largest cancer killer of women, only approximately half of w omen older than age 50 years, and fewer older than age 70 years, undergo ma mmography in accordance with American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines, Ther efore, the purpose of this study was to identify women's overall decision-m aking approaches when considering mammography. Subjects were a purposive, c onvenience sample of 50 women in the community who had made a decision abou t mammography; they included those who chose to have mammograms and those w ho decided not to have mammograms according to the pre-1997 ACS guidelines. Subjects participated in audiotaped interviews. Results indicated that wom en approached the mammography decision differently regardless of the decisi on they made. Thr-ee overall decision-making approaches to addressing risk factors, issues about mammography, or other factors before their decision w ere evident. The approaches were (1) thoughtful consideration; (2) cursory consideration; and (3) little or no consideration. Each approach has implic ations for nurses who assist women in making decisions about mammography.