Mammogram numbers stay steady locally
Monday, February 5, 2007 10:21 AM PST
| |
| Jennifer Colton | Argus Observer
Nancy Moore makes notes on a patient’s chart after viewing the mammography X-rays at Holy Rosary Medical Center Thursday. Nationwide, the number of women taking yearly mammograms is slipping, but locally numbers remain constant. |
Jennifer Colton
Argus Observer
Ontario
While the number of women obtaining mammograms across the nation has dipped during the past five years, locally the total number of individuals seeking such care is holding steady.
In 2000, 76.4 percent of women 40 and older reported having a mammogram in the previous two years, but the number has continued to decline, standing at 74.6 percent in 2005, according to a study released Jan. 26 by the Centers for Disease Control. The waning numbers could portend an increase in breast cancer mortality, as breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer-related death among woman in this country, also according to the study.
“Last year here at Holy Rosary our numbers have stayed pretty much the same,” Linda Scott, HRMC Diagnostic Imaging Department director, said Thursday. “In this area, in Malheur County, we’re actually seeing an increase. I find it (the decline) hard to believe because information is always in front of people.”
Fred Oyer, a radiologist at Holy Rosary Medical Center, said he had not seen a decline in this area, but he had heard of numbers in Boise dropping.
“I think it’s economics,” Oyer said. “I think people are strapped financially and they have priorities so instead of getting a mammogram, they put it off every year.”
In 2006, HRMC performed 3,200 mammograms at the hospital and an additional 406 at Dominican Health Services.
“In Malheur County, the average invasive cases per year is 18, and the average deaths is three,” Scott said, referring to statistics from 2000 provided by the Oregon Department of Human Services. “That’s quite a few when you think about the size of Malheur County.”
There were 5,745 women over 45 in Malheur County in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Right now the American Cancer Society only recommends yearly mammograms for women over 40,” Scott said. “But with breast cancer, the single best thing you can do is early diagnosis.”
Keeping information available, through mass-mailing reminders and health fair booths, is one of the reasons the area has held steady or increased in the number of mammograms performed, Scott said.
“Once someone has a mammogram here, we send them a letter every year to remind them to schedule it,” Scott said. “It’s such an easy thing to do.”
Scott also cited the recent addition of no-cost screenings at the hospital’s Dominican Health Services clinic in Fruitland for women who qualify as a reason the number of local mammograms has stayed the same or increased.
Those services are provided through a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation grant, Scott said.
Anyone interested can call (541) 881-7125.
for an application.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "