U.S. Women Physicians' personal and clinical breast cancer screening practices

Little is known about predictors of physicians' personal or clinical compliance with breast cancer screening recommendations. We explored this in 4501 respondents to the Women Physicians' Health Study, a questionnaire-based study of a representative sample of U.S. women M. D.s. Overall, 21% of women physicians performed breast self-examination (BSE) at least monthly, about two thirds had received a clinical breast examination (CBE) within the last year, and 85% had received one within the last 2 years. Of those <40 years old, 14% had received a mammogram in the past year, as had 42% of those 40-49 and 59% of those 50-70 years old. Being a primary care practitioners or obstetrician/gynecologist was a significant predictor of counseling or screening for CBE and mammography. Only 46% of all women physicians reported discussing or performing mammograms at least once a year for those >/=50-