The association between general practitioners' attitudes towards breast cancer screening and women's screening participation.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100967800 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1471-2407 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14712407 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Cancer Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

Attitude of Health Personnel* ; Early Detection of Cancer* ; Patient Participation*; Breast Neoplasms/*diagnosis ; General Practitioners/*psychology; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Breast Neoplasms/prevention & control ; Denmark ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Middle Aged

Background: Breast cancer screening in Denmark is organised by the health services in the five regions. Although general practitioners (GPs) are not directly involved in the screening process, they are often the first point of contact to the health care system and thus play an important advisory role. No previous studies, in a health care setting like the Danish system, have investigated the association between GPs' attitudes towards breast cancer screening and women's participation in the screening programme.
Methods: Data on women's screening participation was obtained from the regional screening authorities. Data on GPs' attitudes towards breast cancer screening was taken from a previous survey among GPs in the Central Denmark Region. This study included women aged 50-69 years who were registered with a singlehanded GP who had participated in the survey.
Results: The survey involved 67 singlehanded GPs with a total of 13,288 women on their lists. Five GPs (7%) had a negative attitude towards breast cancer screening. Among registered women, 81% participated in the first screening round. Multivariate analyses revealed that women registered with a GP with a negative attitude towards breast cancer screening were 17% (95% CI: 2-34%) more likely to be non-participants compared with women registered with a GP with a positive attitude towards breast cancer screening.
Conclusion: The GPs' attitudes may influence the participation rate even in a system where GPs are not directly involved in the screening process. However, further studies are needed to investigate this association.

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Date Created: 20120620 Date Completed: 20121221 Latest Revision: 20211021

20231215

PMC3413538

10.1186/1471-2407-12-254

22708828