| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| The impact of health status on physicians' intentions to offer cancer screening to older women | | Author(s) | Mitchell T Heflin, Kathryn I Pollak, Maragatha N Kuchibhatla |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, vol 61A, no 8, August 2006 |
| Pages | pp 844-850 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Older women ; Cancer ; Screening ; Health [elderly] ; Attitude ; General practitioners ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | Screening for breast and cervical cancer reduces disease-specific mortality, but high rates of comorbidity and disability in older people may alter the risks and benefits of screening. In a postal survey of US primary care physicians, respondents were asked to read a scenario about an older woman. Each scenario patient was one of three ages (70, 80 or 90) and had one of three levels of comorbidity and disability. Respondents were asked to estimate the likelihood of offering screening with mammography and Pap smear to these patients on a 5-point Likert scale. A logistic regression compared these physicians somewhat or very likely to offer screening with those tests less likely to do so. Further analyses examined the characteristics of respondents likely to "overscreen" the frailest older women (<5 years median life expectancy) or "underscreen" the healthiest (>10 years median life expectancy). 2003 completed surveys were returned (37% response rate). Controlling for age and previous screening, higher levels of morbidity and disability were associated with a significantly lower likelihood of offering screening for both mammography and smear test. Nonetheless, a substantial percentage (30.7%) of physicians indicated a high likelihood of offering a frail 90 year old woman mammogram and 13.4% would offer a smear test. In general, overscreening was more common than underscreening. In addition to age, primary care physicians consider health status in deciding to offer cancer screening to older women. Education and guidelines for cancer screening, should more explicitly consider the risks of overscreening among frail older women. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070504241 A |
| Classmark | BD: CK: 3V: CC: DP: QT6: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|