Abstract
<p><em>Breast Screen Australia is a national breast cancer screening program which aims to reduce illness and death from breast cancer through early detection using mammography. Through this program women aged 40 and over in Australia are eligible for a free mammogram every two years. Around 55% of the target population participate in the program. Understanding the accessibility of breast screen services has the potential to improve the uptake of screening services. Spatial analysis of individual breast screen services: opening hours, disability and accessibility infrastructure, parking and transport data can be used to describe the accessibility of breast screen services. Through highlighting regional accessibility to breast screen services it is possible to identify regions where accessibility to services could be increased to improved equity in health service provision.</em></p>
Highlights
Breast cancer was the sixth leading cause of death for females, accounting for 2,814 deaths in 2014 in Australia (ABS, 2016)
Mapping the disability and accessibility categories for each of the breast screen services has highlighted that most services across New South Wales are fully accessible with only the regions around Coffs Harbour, Leichardt and Parramatta revealing that they are not fully accessible (Figure 1) and that the services at Lismore, Coffs Harbour and Leichhardt are services where assistance is necessary to facilitate access
While accessibility is often measured as space-time and is often measured as individuals’ continuous trajectories or paths, in reality they are not random in space-time but are subject to a range of personal and social constraints, including the limits on mobility resulting from the available transport technology and the biological need for resting time (Kwan & Weber, 2003)
Summary
Breast cancer was the sixth leading cause of death for females, accounting for 2,814 deaths in 2014 in Australia (ABS, 2016). In Australia, free biennial population-based screening is available for women in the target age group of 50 to years, women aged 40-49 years and over years are www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/rhs. Roder et al (2008) found that participation in screening was associated with a breast-cancer mortality reduction of between 30 and 41%, depending on assumptions about screening self-selection bias. Access to care is often viewed simplistically as distance and availability, access masks quality of care, cultural security and the appropriateness of the model of care, type of service and needs of the local community (Bourke et al, n.d.). People trade off geographical and nongeographical factors in making decisions about health service use (Cromley & McLafferty, 2002)
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