Compliance with mammography guidelines: physician recommendation and patient adherence

Guidelines recommend that women ages 50-75 years receive screening mammography every 1-2 years. We related receipt of physician recommendations for mammography and patient adherence to such recommendations to several patient characteristics.

We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 1,111 women ages 50-75 attending three clinics in an urban university medical center. We ascertained overall compliance with mammography guidelines and two components of compliance: receipt of a physician recommendation and adherence to a recommendation. Outcome measures were the proportion of patients demonstrating each type of compliance and adjusted odds ratios, according to several patient-related characteristics.

Overall, 66% of women received a recommendation. Of women receiving a documented recommendation, 75% adhered. Factors showing significant positive associations with receiving a recommendation included being a patient in the general internal medicine clinic, having private insurance, visiting the clinic more often, and having a recent Pap smear. Patient adherence was positively associated with private insurance and Pap smear history, negatively associated with internal medicine, and not associated with visit frequency.

Patient factors influencing physician mammography recommendations may be different from those associated with patient adherence, except for having private health insurance, which was a predictor of both.