Mammographic screening and socio-epidemiological profile of Amerindian riverside women in the Amazon forest.

Abstract

e13573 Background: Breast cancer still represents the most common tumor among women in the world and in Brazil. Screening coverage in Brazil is much lower than what is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), which makes it difficult to perform an early diagnosis. Thus, the current work aims to carry out mammographic screening and the socio-epidemiological profile of Amerindian riverside women in the Amazon region. Methods: This study is characterized as sectional and the sample consists of 260 female patients, living riverside, from the communities of the Amazon Forest, Xingu and Tapajos rivers, interviewed after the mammography screening in a task force promoted by the Brazilian Navy. Results: The median patients age was 49 years (p25-75: 45-58), menarche was around 13 years (p25-75: 12-14), menopause was 48 years (p25-75: 43-50) and the median of pregnancies was four (p25-75: 2-6). Most patients were classified as BIRADS 1 (41.32%), 4 of the 8 suspected and highly suspected cases were confirmed as breast cancer, and these patients had no complaints (82.98%), did not use therapy hormonal (97.15%), and did not use oral contraceptives (60.57%) and breastfed during pregnancy (97.52%). Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of protective factors against cancer, related to lifestyle and local culture. However, these communities have minimal access to health services, which demonstrates actual need of public policies to assist Amerindian riverside women, in order to promote better health care and, thus, reduce one of the most prevalent diseases in the Amazon region. [Table: see text]