The Effect of an Organized, Nationwide Breast Cancer Screening Programme on Non-organized Mammography Activities

Objectives: To analyse the effect of an organized, nationwide breast cancer screening programme on non-organized mammography activities in Hungary.

Setting: The nationwide dataset of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration covering the years 2000-2005.

Methods: Data derived from the nationwide database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration. The study includes all women undergoing mammography before (2000-2001) and after (2002-2003/2004-2005) the introduction of organized screening.

Results: The number of women having non-organized (opportunistic/diagnostic) mammograms was around 250,000 in 2000-2001, but increased to 350,000 in 2005. In the age group 45-64 years in 2000-2001, only 27.4% of all women undergoing mammography were examined within locally-organized programmes. After the introduction of the nationwide programme, this percentage increased to 61.0% in 2002-2003, and 56.3% in 2004-2005. After the introduction of the nationwide organized programme (2002-2003), the proportion of organized screening mammographies remained among the highest in county Hajdú-Bihar (78.4%) and Zala (88.3%) and increased significantly in county Vas (87.7%).

Conclusion: The introduction of an organized nationwide screening programme in Hungary resulted in increases in the number of screening mammographies, and also of non-organized mammographies. Although the ratio of organized screening versus non-organized mammography changed in favour of screening mammographies, there are large within-country differences between counties.