Cancer screening among a population-based sample of insured women

Screening has been shown to lower the morbidity and mortality for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. Despite the availability of cancer screening, nearly 70,000 women die each year from these cancers. We conducted a study in 2008 within a privately-insured patient population of women who were members of an integrated health care system in Southeastern Michigan, for whom information on ovarian cancer risk as well as personal and family history of cancer was available.

We used a population-based, weighted stratified random sample of women from a single health care institution to assess the proportion with up-to-date breast, cervical, and colorectal screening. Multivariable analyses were conducted to identify predictors of screening behavior.

In our study, women reported cervical and breast cancer screening above 90% and colorectal cancer screening above 75%.

The results of our study hold promise that Healthy People 2020 cancer screening objectives might be obtainable as access to health insurance is expanded among US residents.