2023-06-14 22:14:08
Data on women’s participation in the organized breast cancer screening program for the period 2021-2022 have just been published.
Less than 1 in 2 women participate
Women aged 50 to 74 can benefit from a free breast cancer screening mammogram every two years. This is carried out in public and private radiology practices, you just have to choose a radiologist from the list of those participating in the program. If the examination reveals no abnormalities, a 2e reading is done systematically and if the results are confirmed, it is proposed to repeat this examination within 2 years.
The latest published figures show that only 47.7% of women took part in this screening over the period 2021-2022. In addition, 11% had a mammogram outside the program. However, breast cancer is responsible for 12,000 deaths per year, it is the most common cancer in women in France and the 1re cause of death from cancer in this population.
An impact of the pandemic
We observe a drop in participation in this screening in 2019-2020 linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the year 2022, the national rate of participation in this screening was 44.9% while it was 50.6% in 2021. This apparent drop is partly explained by the fact that the year 2021 was a year of catching up on exams that might not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic and the lockdowns. Screening being planned every 2 years, it is more interesting to compare the figures over two rolling years and in this case we observe that the 2021-2022 participation begins a slight increase with a rate of 47.7%. versus 46.6% over the 2020-2021 period.
The pandemic has come on top of a gradual decline in the supply of senology, which already involved extending the time between two screenings. It will probably take a few years for the consequences of the disruptions due to COVID-19 to subside.
Heterogeneous participation depending on the region
Over the period 2021-2022, participation at regional level varies from 21.2% in Guyana to 55.3% in Pays de la Loire. Very low participation is observed in Ile-de-France, in the South-East and in Corsica.
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