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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE |
At the time the study was completed, Susan E. Jelinski was with the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Alberta. Colleen J. Maxwell was with the departments of Community Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Calgary, and a fellow with the Institute of Health Economics, Edmonton, Alberta. Jay Onysko and Christina M. Bancej were with the Chronic Disease Prevention Division, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Colleen J. Maxwell, PhD, Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 4N1 (e-mail: maxwell{at}ucalgary.ca).
| ABSTRACT |
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Objectives. We evaluated whether breast self-examination (BSE) influences subsequent mammography participation.
Methods. We evaluated associations between BSE and subsequent mammography participation, adjusting for baseline screening behaviors and sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle characteristics, among women aged 40 years and older using data from the longitudinal Canadian National Population Health Survey.
Results. Regular performance of BSE at baseline was not associated with receipt of a recent mammogram at follow-up among all women (adjusted odds ratio [OR]=1.01; 95% confidence interval [CI]= 0.75, 1.35) or with mammography uptake among the subgroup of women reporting never use at baseline (adjusted OR=0.78; 95% CI=0.50, 1.22).
Conclusions. The lack of association between performance of BSE and subsequent mammography participation suggests that not recommending BSE is unlikely to influence mammography participation.
| INTRODUCTION |
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Two recent systematic reviews of routine teaching or performing of BSE to screen for breast cancer among women aged 40 and older question the balance of benefits and harms of these practices.15,16 The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care concluded there was insufficient evidence to continue promotion of the routine teaching of BSE during periodic health examinations of women, and further concluded that there is fair evidence of harm from BSE owing to unnecessary diagnostic procedures.15 The task force cited Russian and UK studies in which the number of physician visits and the rate of benign breast biopsies were higher among the study participants in the BSE performance groups as compared to control groups.17,18 The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) questioned the generalizability of these trials to US women, concluding that the evidence is insufficient to recommend for or against teaching or performing routine BSE.16 The group further cited concerns that other potential adverse outcomes of discontinuing BSE, including influence on subsequent screening behaviors, have not been evaluated.
As a result, considerable debate has erupted about the potential negative effects of discontinuing the routine promotion and teaching of BSE.1924 It is possible, for example, that performance of regular BSE may inculcate the importance of breast health among women. If so, then one possible negative consequence of the recent recommendations to discontinue routine teaching of BSE would be that the perceived lack of support for BSE could lead to more widespread negative attitudes and behaviors among women in terms of other recommended breast cancer screening strategies, namely routine CBE and participation in mammography screening.
Our objective with this prospective study was to elucidate potential relationships between various breast health behaviors. Based on longitudinal panel data for a representative cohort of Canadian women aged 40 and older assessed in the 19961997 and 19981999 cycles of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), we specifically addressed the following 2 research questions: (1) the relative importance of BSE to subsequent participation in mammography screening among all women, and (2) the significance of BSE as an independent predictor of mammography uptake among women who had never used mammography at baseline.
| METHODS |
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The initial sample included 3952 women. Of these, 384 women did not respond to the question on mammogram use in either the 19961997 or 19981999 survey and were removed from the sample. Another 3 women were excluded because they failed to indicate the approximate date of their most recent mammogram. Other exclusions included 20 women with missing data regarding CBE or BSE participation (including ever use, approximate timing, and frequency). This resulted in a final sample of 3545 for the present analyses.
Measures
Women were defined as having a recent mammogram in 19981999 if they reported having a mammogram within 2 years of completing the survey. New users of mammography ("uptakers") were those reporting never use at baseline (19961997) but recent mammogram participation at follow-up (19981999). To account for inconsistent responses in mammography participation between the 19961997 and 19981999 surveys, the following corrections were made: (1) if a woman reported having a mammogram more than 2 years prior to the 19981999 survey, yet reported never having a mammogram in the 19961997 survey (n = 72), she was considered to have had a recent mammogram in 19981999; and (2) women who reported having had a mammogram in 19961997 yet reported never having had one in 19981999 (n = 38) were considered to be never users at baseline (19961997). These corrections were based on findings from mammography self-report validation studies2731 and the characteristics of the different types of inconsistent respondents in the NPHS.
Performance of BSE was coded as regular (a BSE at least once every 3 months), infrequent (less than once every 3 months), or no (for women reporting never having performed BSE).
We examined sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle factors previously associated with mammography use3241 as well as other screening behaviors as potential confounding factors. Sociodemographic data included age, urban/rural residence, household income, education, language, marital status, and volunteer group participation. Respondents who reported being a member of any voluntary organizations or associations (including school groups, church, ethnic or other social groups), community centers, or both, were coded as participating in a voluntary group. Health and lifestyle variables included having a regular doctor, number of medical consultations in the past year, frequency of physical activity, smoking status, and use of hormone replacement therapy. Other baseline screening practices included blood pressure check, Papanicolaou test, mammography, and CBE. For all screening practices, a recent screen was defined as having occurred within 2 years of the baseline survey whereas a prior screen was defined as having occurred 2 or more years previous.
Statistical Analysis
Two multivariable logistic regression analyses42 were performed to determine the predictive value of breast screening behaviors in 19961997 for mammography participation in 19981999, adjusting for relevant confounding factors. The first model included all women in the sample (n = 3545) to examine the relative importance of all baseline BSE behaviors in predicting a recent mammogram in 19981999. The second model included only those women who reported never having had a mammogram in 19961997 (n = 1231) to examine the significance of BSE as an independent predictor of mammography uptake (i.e., recent use in 19981999).
All breast health behaviors and potential confounders were first examined using age-adjusted bivariable analyses. Factors independently associated with the outcome in question were assessed as possible confounders by incorporating each covariate into a multiple logistic model containing the baseline screening behaviors modeled against the mammography participation outcome in question. If the influence of a potential confounder created a 10% or greater change in the odds ratio (OR) for any baseline screening behavior, it was included in the final model regardless of significance in order to obtain an unbiased estimate of the effect of baseline screening behavior on future mammography participation.43 Factors that did not confound the association between baseline screening behavior and future mammography participation, but that were independently associated with future mammography participation, were retained in the final model on the basis of statistical significance (P
0.05).
To account for stratification and clustering in the NPHS sampling design, exact standard errors for ORs were calculated using bootstrap resampling methods allowing 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to be calculated. For both logistic regression models, cases with missing information for the predictor variables were collapsed into the reference categories. With the exception of income, all examined predictor variables had 1% of cases or less with missing values (7.3% and 7.8% for income in the first and second models, respectively). Additional sensitivity analyses were performed (e.g., excluding women with inconsistent responses, recoding BSE frequency to define "regular BSE" as monthly) to permit further investigation of our selected coding strategy.
All analyses were weighted to reflect the 19941995 Canadian population (which corresponds to the first cycle of the NPHS) in terms of age group and gender.26 The statistical analyses were performed using SAS 8.02 for Windows (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC).
| RESULTS |
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Other than age group, the strongest predictor of subsequent mammography use was recent or prior mammography participation at baseline. Other significant baseline predictors included being aged 50 to 59 years, reports of a recent Papanicolaou test, higher number of consultations with a physician in the past year, and being a nonsmoker.
Breast Screening Practices as Predictors of Mammography Uptake
Among the subsample of women who reported never having had a mammogram at baseline, approximately 55% reported regular performance of BSE and 50% reported receiving a recent CBE in 19961997 (Table 2
). Approximately 26% reported never having performed BSE and 31% reported never having received a CBE at baseline.
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The incorporation of alternative coding strategies for inconsistent respondents (i.e., excluding women with inconsistent responses for mammography participation between the 19961997 and 19981999 cycles) and for defining regular BSE on a monthly basis rather than at least once every 3 months did not significantly alter the findings from the multivariable logistic models.
| DISCUSSION |
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It is possible that participation in any 1 of the 3 breast screening strategies (BSE, CBE, mammography) may influence the practice of the other 2 strategies, and that women who perform BSE may be more likely to participate in other recommended screening behaviors. A resulting concern, therefore, is that the relative lack of support for BSE may reduce participation in breast health strategies overall, including mammography. However, our present analyses based on Canadian women aged 40 and older participating in the longitudinal panel of the NPHS suggest that BSE is not an independent predictor of mammography participation. This finding was consistent when breast screening strategies were evaluated for all women in the sample, as well as for the subgroup of women who potentially could have been new users of mammography in 19981999.
Conversely, women who reported recent use of other positive screening practices at baseline (e.g., mammogram, Papanicolaou test) were significantly more likely to report a recent mammogram in 19981999. This is not unexpected, given findings from previous studies demonstrating the significance of previous screening behaviors (especially mammography use) as independent predictors of subsequent participation in mammography screening at recommended intervals.39,44
Participation in CBE at baseline influenced mammography uptake during the 2-year interim between surveys. Previous studies have similarly reported a positive relationship between CBE and mammography participation.45,46 This finding highlights the importance of regular physician contact and the relevance of physicians recommendations47,48 regarding recommended screening behaviors, particularly among previously never-screened women. Many organized breast screening programs in various Canadian provinces and in the United States also provide CBE during a routine screening examination.49,50 It is important to note that, in our study, performance of CBE increased subsequent mammography participation. Although a recent study found only a small relative contribution of CBE to early detection in programs delivering both mammography and CBE, program policies concerning the delivery of screening by CBE should also consider the reinforcing effect of CBE performance on mammography uptake.51
The observed inverse association between being a member of a voluntary group and mammography uptake by the 2-year follow-up was unexpected, given previous cross-sectional findings of a positive association between voluntary group membership and ever having had a mammogram among women aged 50 to 69 years.41 One possible explanation for this discrepancy relates to the different age groups and mammography outcomes examined in the current study. For example, younger women (aged 4049 years) may be more likely to be members of voluntary groups but less likely to be uptakers of mammography screens, particularly in Canada, where mammography use is only actively promoted among women aged 50 to 69 years.
The limitations of this study include those routinely associated with self-reported survey data. For mammography in particular, however, previous studies have demonstrated a high level of agreement between self-reports of mammography and confirmed mammography records.27,31,52 Our analyses were also limited to those women who responded to the NPHS. However, the design features of the NPHS, which had a response rate of 98.5% in 19981999, suggest that our estimates are unlikely to have been influenced by nonresponse bias.
In conclusion, the absence of a significant association between performance of BSE and subsequent mammography participation observed in the present study suggests that the current recommendations regarding BSE are unlikely to have an adverse effect on recommended breast cancer screening practices. Previous mammography screening behaviors and participation in time-appropriate cancer screening strategies (including CBE and Papanicolaou tests) continue to represent significant determinants of future mammography behaviors. However, our findings do not exclude the possibility that the promotion and teaching of BSE may indeed function to enhance womens awareness of breast health. Our research also does not directly address the impact of discontinuing the promotion and teaching of BSE. Further research is required to identify specific strategies that both empower women and promote screening behaviors with proven health benefits.
| Acknowledgments |
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Human Participant Protection
The NPHS is an ongoing survey conducted by Statistics Canada. As such, data are collected in accordance with Canadas Statistics Act, which governs the protection of privacy of survey subjects.
| Footnotes |
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Contributors
S. E. Jelinski and C. J. Maxwell contributed to the initial and revised analyses of the NPHS panel data, the interpretation of the results, and the initial drafting and editing of the article. J. Onysko and C. M. Bancej were responsible for the data linkage with Statistics Canada (for the NPHS share file) and for the revised bootstrap analyses, and also contributed to the interpretation of the results and editing of the article.
Accepted for publication March 17, 2004.
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