Diabetes and Lower Screening Rates

A team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York has found that women with diabetes were significantly less likely to undergo mammography screening for breast cancer than women without this chronic disease.

Writing in the journal Diabetes Care, they said their findings are consistent with previous investigations showing reduced utilization of health care services by many patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes.

"Women with diabetes were significantly less likely to undergo screening mammography than control subjects," they wrote. "Considering the increasing incidence of diabetes and the equal incidence of malignancy in women with and without diabetes, it would be beneficial to improve breast cancer screening in this population."

The reasons that women with diabetes undertake lower rates of cancer screening are not entirely clear, the researchers acknowledged. However, they suggested there could be reasons related both to the patients and the physicians as to why the incidence of mammography was lower among diabetic women.

For patients, they say, managing their diabetes may demand so much of their attention and resources that they are unwilling to undertake additional steps focusing on cancer prevention. For physicians, the added burden associated with caring for patients with diabetes could also play a role.

The researchers studied 424 women with diabetes aged 50-75 years and matched them with a control group of non-diabetic women. Seventy-eight percent of the diabetic women underwent mammography screening during the study period, compared to 85 percent of the non-diabetic women.

"Considering the increasing incidence of diabetes and the equal incidence of malignancy in women with and without diabetes, it would be beneficial to improve breast cancer screening in this population," said Dr. Robert M. Cuddihy a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and one of the study's authors.

SOURCES:
Diabetes Care, December 2001; 24(12):2049-2053
The Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayo.edu)

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