A randomized clinical trial to assess the benefit of offering on-site mobile mammography in addition to health education for older women.

OBJECTIVE. We conducted a cluster randomized clinical trial to compare the benefit of offering on-site mobile mammography in addition to an outreach program designed to increase mammography use by educating patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. We recruited a consecutive volunteer sample of 499 women ranging in age from 60 to 84 years who had not undergone mammography in the previous year to participate in a cluster randomized clinical trial about the benefit of on-site mobile mammography. Subjects were recruited from 60 community-based sites where seniors gather. The intervention included a structured on-site multicomponent educational program with or without available on-site mobile mammography. The primary outcome measure was self-reported receipt of mammography within 3 months of the intervention. RESULTS. Women in the group offered access to on-site mammography and health education were significantly more likely than those in the group offered health education only to undergo mammography within 3 months (55% vs 40%, p = 0.001; adjusted [for clustering] odds ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-2.74). Gains from offering on-site mammography were shown for several ethnic and sociodemographic subgroups and were especially large for Asian American women. CONCLUSION. Offering on-site mammography at community-based sites where older women gather is an effective method for increasing breast cancer screening rates among older women and may be particularly effective for some subgroups of women who traditionally have had low screening rates.