Abstract 1821: Marital status and adherence to scheduled free breast cancer screening among uninsured inner city women

Background: Mammography screening is associated with reduction in mortality from breast cancer. Women with lower socioeconomic status have increased burden from breast cancer which may be attributable to lower access and uptake of screening. The impact of family support in promoting uptake of breast cancer screening among women with low socioeconomic status is not well understood. Aim: We sought to examine whether marital status influences adherence to scheduled free breast cancer screening with clinical breast examination and mammography among uninsured inner city women. Methods: Howard University Cancer Center offered free breast cancer screening (clinical breast examination and mammogram) for uninsured women who are aged 40 and older in the Washington DC area. Participants were referred from community health organizations’ outreach programs in Maryland, District of Columbia and Maryland. Our analytic cohort comprises patients who were scheduled for free breast cancer screening from July 2009 to June 2010. The participants were categorized as non-adherent (no shows) if they did not cancel their appointments and did not show up for the breast cancer screening. We used Poisson regression models to evaluate the association of race with adherence to the scheduled breast cancer screening and adjusted for potential confounders. We calculated Relative Risks (RR) for no shows and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Results: A total of 460 patients were scheduled for screening. The mean age was 49.7 years; 195 (43.4%) were Hispanic and 215 (47.9%) were black. 186 (41.3%) patients were married and 264 (58.7%) were not. Married patients were less likely to be born in the United States (6% vs 21%; P Conclusions: Although a quarter of uninsured women are non-adherent for their free breast cancer screening appointments, married women are less likely to be non-adherent. This suggests that educational outreach programs targeting men may be a potential mechanism to increase uptake of breast cancer screening among underserved women. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1821. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1821