Journal of Medical Screening
Volume 25, Issue 3, 2018, Pages 155-161

Lower attendance rates in immigrant versus non-immigrant women in the norwegian breast cancer screening programme (Article)

Bhargava S. , Tsuruda K. , Moen K. , Bukholm I. , Hofvind S.*
  • a Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway, Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • b Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway
  • c Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • d Norwegian System of Compensation to Patients, Oslo, Norway, Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Social Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Oslo, Norway
  • e Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway, Department of Life Sciences and Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway

Abstract

Objective: The Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Programme invites women aged 50–69 to biennial mammographic screening. Although 84% of invited women have attended at least once, attendance rates vary across the country. We investigated attendance rates among various immigrant groups compared with non-immigrants in the programme. Methods: There were 4,053,691 invitations sent to 885,979 women between 1996 and 2015. Using individual level populationbased data from the Cancer Registry and Statistics Norway, we examined percent attendance and calculated incidence rate ratios, comparing immigrants with non-immigrants, using Poisson regression, following women’s first invitation to the programme and for ever having attended. Results: Immigrant women had lower attendance rates than the rest of the population, both following the first invitation (53.1% versus 76.1%) and for ever having attended (66.9% versus 86.4%). Differences in attendance rates between nonimmigrant and immigrant women were less pronounced, but still present, when adjusted for sociodemographic factors. We also identified differences in attendance between immigrant groups. Attendance increased with duration of residency in Norway. A subgroup analysis of migrants’ daughters showed that 70.0% attended following the first invitation, while 82.3% had ever attended. Conclusions: Immigrant women had lower breast cancer screening attendance rates. The rationale for immigrant women’s non-attendance needs to be explored through further studies targeting women from various birth countries and regions. © The Author(s) 2017.

Author Keywords

Screening mammography attendance Breast cancer Immigrant Inequality

Index Keywords

Registries mass screening Norway register human epidemiology middle aged early cancer diagnosis Aged Databases, Factual factual database Early Detection of Cancer diagnostic imaging Humans Breast Neoplasms migrant Mammography Emigrants and Immigrants breast tumor female patient compliance Poisson distribution
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85054316703&doi=10.1177%2f0969141317733771&partnerID=40&md5=9615b029803ba9d0ea53df01c966eab2
DOI: 10.1177/0969141317733771
ISSN: 09691413
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English