Variations in approaches to breast cancer screening among primary care physicians

Background. Guidelines for breast cancer screening often provide conflicting recommendations. Methods. A cross-sectional survey design was used to examine approaches to cancer screening among primary care physicians. Results. Among the 187 respondents, levels of agreement with the "correct" response ranged between 50% and 73% for each of the four items relating to breast cancer screening; only 42% of physicians demonstrated agreement with three or more of the four items. Physician gender, specialty group, and age category were significant predictors of responses. Conclusions. These findings suggest the need to implement educational interventions as one means of decreasing variation in breast cancer screening.