Mammography Screening in Norway - The Womens Perspective

A successful screening programme is dependent on the participation rate. In the planning and evaluation of screening programmes it is necessary to understand the motives, experiences and expectations among the population of attending, re-attending and/or abstaining from screening. These may be explained by cultural, geographical or socioeconomic factors, but also by personal experiences with screening and its side-effects. In a prior qualitative study we followed women invited to their first screening rou nd through the receipt of the invitation to screening, waiting for and receiving the result, having a recall letter and the subsequent re-examination. This project will expand on the current knowledge of how women experience, and respond to various aspect s of the mammography screening programme. The main topics will be the long term experience of screening participation and its effect on the assessment of breast cancer risk, the short and long term psychosocial effects of having an inconclusive or false-p ositive mammogram and the experience of having an interval cancer. Data will be sampled by single interviews in the relevant categories of informants. Also, material from previous studies will be used for further analyses. Psychosocial effects of false po sitive mammography results are to be measured by a validated questionnaire. Data will be analysed with appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods. Knowledge from the study is needed in order to frame information to the public and to ensure the voice s of the users.