197050 Can we fulfill the recommendation of annual recommendation of breast cancer screening? Mammography capacity in Chicago

Wednesday, November 11, 2009: 8:30 AM

Kristi L. Allgood, MPH , Sinai Urban Health Institute, Sinai Health System, Chicago, IL
Garth Rauscher, PhD , School of Public Health, University of Illinoise at Chicago, Chicago, IL
Steven Whitman, PhD , Sinai Urban Health Institute, Sinai Health System, Chicago, IL
Rationale: It is recommended that women over 40 have annual mammograms. A newly created initiative in Chicago has as one of its goals to greatly increase access to mammography. We wondered if there would be adequate capacity if our outreach efforts were successful. A review of the literature and communication with other locations revealed that mammography capacity assessments did not exist for any geographic area in the US. Methods: We surveyed all 86 local institutions that were FDA approved to perform mammograms. With the aid of a unique city-wide collaboration we obtained an overall response rate of 84% for our survey which investigated how many mammograms each institution performs each year and how close each site was to reaching its capacity. Finally, we used the 2000 US Census to determine the age eligible population (i.e., women > 40). Results: The 2000 Census revealed that 588,000 women were eligible for screening mammograms annually in Chicago. Our survey found that approximately 205,000 mammograms were performed for city residents in 2008. Thus only 35% of the age eligible population received a mammogram. In addition, even if every site ran at their maximum capacity only about 50% of age eligible women would be able to get a mammogram. Conclusions: Chicago is not equipped to provide mammography services to all women who are eligible for them. There thus appears to be a mixed message between public health efforts that urge early detection for breast cancer and the reality women face in accessing breast health care.

Learning Objectives:
1. Define and evaluate mammography capacity; 2. Describe a city-wide effort to increase access to mammography in Chicago; and 3. Discuss the importance of mammography capacity as it relates to outreach interventions.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have earned an MPH in epidemiology and have been in the field of public health and/or research for 10 years and have been working in the area of breast health for 3 years. I also prepared the tools, oversaw data collection, cleaned and analyzed the data for this presentation. Finally, I am one of the members of the city wide effort to increase mammography capacity and improve breast cancer outcomes for the metropolitan area of Chicago which is mentioned in the abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.