Many U.S. Women Must Travel Far to Get Mammograms
Researchers found that 8.2 million women had limited access to mammography screening in 2022 -- defined as living more than a 20-minute drive to the nearest facility.
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MONDAY, Dec. 19, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Many American women have to travel long distances to reach the nearest mammography center, a new study finds -- raising questions about whether that keeps some from receiving breast cancer screening.
Researchers found that 8.2 million women had limited access to mammography screening in 2022 -- defined as living more than a 20-minute drive to the nearest facility. That was up from 7.5 million in 2006.
Not surprisingly, women in rural areas were most affected: In rural regions of 28 states, more than half of women had limited mammography access due to where they lived.
While 20 minutes might not sound like a long drive, that was the minimum. In some places, it was closer to 45 minutes to an hour, according to researcher Daniel Wiese, a senior scientist with the American Cancer Society.
"This might not be the most important barrier to mammography screening," Wiese said. But, he added, it could be substantial for some women -- especially if they have other obstacles, like no paid time off from work or needing to find child care.
What's not clear from the study, though, is whether long drive times actually affected screening rates in those rural areas.
Wiese's team found that in many sparsely populated states, relatively fewer women were up-to-date on breast cancer screening, versus more densely populated states. But it's not known whether that's because women in rural areas had longer travel times to get screened.
Other experts said it's easy to see how long travel times could keep some women from getting screened. It's not a one-time event, but repeated every one to two years. And if there's a suspicious finding, that means a return trip.
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