Socio-economic Predictors of Annual and Bi-annual Clinical Breast Examination among Women in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: There exist only few Brazilian studies about women's adherence on the clinical breast examination (CBE).Objectives: This study of women in northeast Brazil addressed socio-economic variables besides physical activity and ancestry and their impact on performance of CBE.Methods: Data were obtained by interviewing 307 women aged ≥ 40 years old. All interviews were performed in a public health center of Campina Grande, state of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to determine odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CI) of variables.Results: Of the 307 women 140 performed CBE never or irregular, whereas 137 and 30 performed it each year, respectively each second year. Women who used exclusively public health service centers had a 2.0-fold (OR = 0.495; 95%CI: 0.28 -0.74) decreased chance of annual CBE performance, compared to those ones who used public and private services (p = 0.006). In a model of logistic regression analysis, low-income women had a 3.1-fold (OR = 0.321; 95%CI: 0.11 -0.92) decreased chance to undergo CBE every year (p = 0.009). Unemployed women had a 2.8-fold (OR = 0.360; 95%CI: 0.15 -0.88) decreased chance of bi-annual CBE performance.Women who informed European ancestry had a 2.8 (95%CI: 1.45 -5.26) increased chance to perform CBE each year, compared to those ones who informed African or mixed ancestry (p = 0.005). Regular physical activity increased chance of annual CBE performance 1.9 (95%CI: 1.10 -3.29) times (p = 0.013). Conclusion:Low income and unemployment decreased chance of regular CBE performance. Compared to African and mixed ancestry, informed European ancestry increased chance of regular CBE performance. Physical activity was also positively associated with regular CBE performance. Present data indicated that even among women sampled in the same public health service center regular CBE performance depended strongly on the socio-economic and ethnic background of women.