Assertiveness with physicians: does it predict mammography use?

In a prior study we found that women's self-reported assertiveness with their healthcare providers was associated with their use of mammography in a population-based cross-sectional sample of women. Women who reported being more assertive, by repeating information if they felt their doctor didn't hear them, asking their doctor to explain information they didn't understand, or reminding their doctor about screening tests, were more likely to have received a mammogram recently than those who reported being less assertive. Here we examined how women's self-reports of assertiveness predicted their use of mammography three years later. We examined this using a population-based sample of 781 women living in rural Washington State who were participating in a trial of mammography promotion. We found that assertive women were younger on average than less assertive women, but that even after controlling for age, education, income, and marital status, women who reported being assertive with their doctor in 1994 were more likely to receive regular mammograms in the next three years than those who did not (OR 2.1; CI 1.5, 2.9). If future studies also suggest that assertiveness predicts use of mammography or other preventive healthcare services, it would be valuable to examine the promotion of assertiveness as a means of improving public health.