Does supply influence mammography screening?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Mammography screening is crucial for early breast cancer detection.
• Significant disparities exist in mammography screening rates between rural and urban populations.
• Understanding the factors contributing to these disparities is essential for improving cancer screening access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of healthcare service supply in explaining rural-urban differences in mammography screening.
• To identify specific factors that mediate the relationship between geographic location and mammography utilization.

Main Methods:

• Logistic regression models were employed to analyze mammography screening rates.
• The study assessed the association between the supply of healthcare services and screening behavior.
• Rural-urban differences were examined in relation to predisposing and enabling factors.

Main Results:

• Women in sparsely populated rural areas, distant from metropolitan centers, had lower odds of obtaining mammograms (OR = 0.682).
• This rural-urban disparity in mammography screening was reduced after accounting for predisposing and enabling factors (OR = 0.843).

Conclusions:

• Contextual-level enabling factors, such as healthcare service availability, play a mediating role in rural-urban differences in mammography screening.
• These findings highlight the importance of addressing healthcare access barriers to reduce disparities in cancer screening.