A new study may have uncovered a potential reason why some women in the US have missed earlier breast cancer screening. This is an important finding, as regular breast cancer screening can help catch the disease at an early stage when it is most treatable. By understanding why some women are not getting screened, healthcare providers can work to improve screening rates and ultimately save lives.
According to a recent study led by American Cancer Society (ACS) experts, travel time to the closest mammography clinic is long for a significant percentage of women in the United States, impacting more than 50% of women in rural regions in 28 states.
This lack of regional accessibility was linked to fewer women receiving crucial breast cancer screening. The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute today.
“Our findings are concerning. Mammography is widely available in the United States, but barriers, such as long drive times, are likely influencing a woman’s decision to get screened,” says Dr. Daniel Wiese, senior scientist, cancer disparity research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study. “We need to move forward on programs to remove these barriers so women can access this potentially life-saving screening.”
The study used mammography location data from 2006 and 2022 from the US Food and Drug Administration to examine access to mammography in the contiguous US (all states except Alaska and Hawaii). The data was organized by census tract, with a total of 73,718 tracts included in the analysis.
From 2006 to 2022, scientists calculated the number and percentage of women aged 45 to 84 who had restricted travel-time-based geographic accessibility (driving time more than 20 minutes) to the closest mammography facility, segregated by urban-rural status and state. Then, per state, researchers assessed relationships between low accessibility and the prevalence of breast cancer screening.
The findings demonstrated that a significant number of women still lack easy access to mammography on a national level. The predicted number of women with restricted accessibility grew from 7.5 million in 2006 to 8.2 million in 2022 due to population growth, however, this fraction did not change much between 2006 (12.7%) and 2022 (12.2%).
More than 26% of women in 10 states, mostly in the Rocky Mountains and the South, have restricted access to mammography, according to the statistics.
The percentage of rural areas with restricted access to mammography was significant (more than 50% in 28 states), with the largest percentages in the Rocky Mountains region, with the exception of a few states in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions. In 35 states, this percentage was less than 5.0% in metropolitan areas.
South Dakota and Mississippi saw the biggest improvements, with limited access going down by 5.1% and 4.8%, respectively.
“The simple answer would be to open more breast cancer screening facilities in sparsely populated areas, but this can be economically and logistically challenging,” Wiese adds. “Providing transportation or promoting the use of mobile screening units may be alternative actions, although further research is needed to improve the effectiveness of mobile screening units in increasing participation in breast cancer screening in rural areas.”
Image Credit: Suzi Pratt/Getty Images for Hologic