Encouraging screening mammograms. Results of the 1988 Connecticut Breast Cancer Detection Awareness Campaign.

Connecticut's first Breast Cancer Detection Awareness Campaign during April 1988 offered low-cost screening mammograms ($50) to women over age 34 who had not been previously examined. Following a brief mass media campaign, some 2,500 inquiries about the program were received over a seven-day period, resulting in 1,243 examinations of the detection of eight breast cancers. Program participants cited an enhanced awareness that a baseline examination was due, and knowledge about the availability of low-cost services as reasons for obtaining a screening mammogram. Their reasons for not having been previously screened included not having been advised by physicians to have such an examination (28%); high cost (37%); and failure to recognize the importance of periodic screening (21%). By contrast, relatively few women expressed concern about the test procedure (12%), or fear of finding cancer (9%) as reasons for not being screened previously. These findings underscore the benefit of cancer control efforts to reduce access and information barriers to regular use of mammography by women.