Awareness and Prevalence of Mammography Screening and Its Predictors; A Cross Sectional Study in A Primary Care Clinic

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women worldwide (Globocan, 2008). Successful treatment of breast cancer depends on early diagnosis (Anderson et al., 2011). Mammography is a gold standard for breast cancer screening (Ministry of Health Malaysia Management of breast cancer, 2010; Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, 2011). It plays a major role in the early detection of disease and reduces breast cancer mortality by 20 to 35% (Elmore, 2005; Services Task Force, 2011). Yet in many countries the uptake of mammography screening remains poor. In Malaysia, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in women. Approximately, 1 in 19 women in this country develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Unfortunately, more than a third of these women presented late and it is the leading cause of cancer death in Malaysian women (Yip et al., 2006; Omar and Tamin 2007; Taib et al., 2007).