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Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis

Breast density (BD) is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and reduces mammographic sensitivity. This study explored women’s responses and intentions if notified that they had dense breasts. Methods: Content analysis was used to assess responses from a written questionnaire undertaken in co...

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Autores principales: Pandya, Tanvi, Liu, Zixuan, Dolan, Hankiz, Hersch, Jolyn, Brennan, Meagan, Houssami, Nehmat, Nickel, Brooke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9861812/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674351
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021596
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author Pandya, Tanvi
Liu, Zixuan
Dolan, Hankiz
Hersch, Jolyn
Brennan, Meagan
Houssami, Nehmat
Nickel, Brooke
author_facet Pandya, Tanvi
Liu, Zixuan
Dolan, Hankiz
Hersch, Jolyn
Brennan, Meagan
Houssami, Nehmat
Nickel, Brooke
author_sort Pandya, Tanvi
collection PubMed
description Breast density (BD) is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and reduces mammographic sensitivity. This study explored women’s responses and intentions if notified that they had dense breasts. Methods: Content analysis was used to assess responses from a written questionnaire undertaken in conjunction with focus groups on BD involving 78 Australian women aged 40–74. Results: Half the women reported that they would feel a little anxious if notified they had dense breasts, while 29.5% would not feel anxious. The most common theme (29.5%) related to anxiety was the psychosocial impact of the possibility of developing cancer, and women believed that being better informed could help with anxiety (26.9%). When asked what they would do if notified of having dense breasts, the most common response was to consult their doctor for information/advice (38.5%), followed by considering supplemental screening (23%). Consequently, when asked directly, 65.4% were interested in undergoing supplemental screening, while others (10.3%) said they “wouldn’t worry about it too much”. Discussion: These findings have important implications for health systems with population-based breast screening programs that are currently considering widespread BD notification in terms of the impact on women, health services and primary care.
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spelling pubmed-98618122023-01-22 Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis Pandya, Tanvi Liu, Zixuan Dolan, Hankiz Hersch, Jolyn Brennan, Meagan Houssami, Nehmat Nickel, Brooke Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Breast density (BD) is an independent risk factor for breast cancer and reduces mammographic sensitivity. This study explored women’s responses and intentions if notified that they had dense breasts. Methods: Content analysis was used to assess responses from a written questionnaire undertaken in conjunction with focus groups on BD involving 78 Australian women aged 40–74. Results: Half the women reported that they would feel a little anxious if notified they had dense breasts, while 29.5% would not feel anxious. The most common theme (29.5%) related to anxiety was the psychosocial impact of the possibility of developing cancer, and women believed that being better informed could help with anxiety (26.9%). When asked what they would do if notified of having dense breasts, the most common response was to consult their doctor for information/advice (38.5%), followed by considering supplemental screening (23%). Consequently, when asked directly, 65.4% were interested in undergoing supplemental screening, while others (10.3%) said they “wouldn’t worry about it too much”. Discussion: These findings have important implications for health systems with population-based breast screening programs that are currently considering widespread BD notification in terms of the impact on women, health services and primary care. MDPI 2023-01-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9861812/ /pubmed/36674351 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021596 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pandya, Tanvi
Liu, Zixuan
Dolan, Hankiz
Hersch, Jolyn
Brennan, Meagan
Houssami, Nehmat
Nickel, Brooke
Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title_full Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title_fullStr Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title_short Australian Women’s Responses to Breast Density Information: A Content Analysis
title_sort australian women’s responses to breast density information: a content analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9861812/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36674351
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021596
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