Predictors of adoption of mammography in women under age 50.

Women in the University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study reported their knowledge of and attitudes toward mammography as well as their adoption of mammography by 1991. Personality measured in 1988-1989 at the age of 42 was associated with the pattern of adoption of mammography reported 2 years later. Adoption of regular mammograms was predicted by conscientiousness, extraversion, and lower depression but not by anxiety. After adjusting for 8 traditional predictors of mammography shown to be significant in this population, the previous personality factors did not maintain their significance. When the women were divided into those who reported breast problems and those who did not, the same set of adjustment factors reduced, but did not eliminate, the association of conscientiousness with adoption of mammography for women without breast problems.