Satisfaction of Women Attending the Manitoba Breast Screening Program

Background. This study evaluated the satisfaction of women who attended the Manitoba Breast Screening Program (MBSP) during the first 17 months of operation and examined differences in satisfaction by screening location and screening result. The setting was the province of Manitoba, Canada. Methods. A breast screening program satisfaction questionnaire comprising six subscales was mailed to 1,331 randomly chosen women in five different categories who attended the MBSP. Four categories were based on location of screen (city of Brandon vs city of Winnipeg) and screen result (normal vs abnormal) and one category comprised women who were screened at a mobile unit. Eighty-eight percent of all questionnaires were returned. Data analyses included analyses of variance to examine the effect of location and result on satisfaction scores and logistic regression to explore the variables associated with reported satisfied and not satisfied responses to each satisfaction subscale. Results. All satisfaction scores were above 80 of 100, indicating high levels of satisfaction. A significant difference in satisfaction scores between women in Winnipeg and women in Brandon was found for the convenience and accessibility (P = 0.0153) and the information transfer subscales (P = 0.0150). A significant difference was found between women with abnormal and women with normal screen results for all subscales (P < 0.01). Women were 4.5 times more likely to be dissatisfied on the general satisfaction subscale if they had an abnormal screen result (95% CI 1.9,10.4). Conclusions. High levels of satisfaction were reported for all aspects of screening at the MBSP. However, women were less likely to be satisfied with program convenience and accessibility. Women with an abnormal result reported lower levels of satisfaction on all subscales. Some women with an abnormal screening result were confused about what their results meant and why they were sent for additional diagnostic tests. As a result of these findings, numerous changes were made to the MBSP.