Mobile mammography, race, and insurance: use trends over a decade at a comprehensive urban cancer center

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the use of a mobile mammography unit (MMU) as it relates to race and insurance status in the largest county in Kentucky. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 48,324 screening mammograms of 21,857 patients conducted over a 10-year period. Descriptive statistics for patient age, race, and insurance status were computed by entire cohort and within subsets of cohorts. Results: Self-reported blacks constituted significant use of the MMU (29% v census data demographic reports of 19%). Race significantly correlated with likelihood to screen three or more times, with blacks (30.5%) more likely, and whites (27.8%) and Hispanics (20.2%) less likely (P < .001). Insurance status also affected frequency of use (P < .001). Conclusion: In this data set, blacks were more likely to repeat use of the MMU. Although preliminary, these data suggest outreach efforts of mobile mammography are appropriately reaching certain targeted populations.