Women

Malta medical journal

Danika Marmara`<sup>1</sup>  Vincent Marmara`¹  Judi Curtis¹ 

关键词: Patient Satisfaction;    Pain;    Anxiety;    Patient Acceptance;    Efficiency.;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: University of Malta * Medical School

【 摘 要 】

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women,1 with 425,000 new cases diagnosed in Europe each year.2 The latter posed a detrimental health problem for years in Malta and consequently, a National Breast Screening Programme was established in 2009. Previous studies regarding client satisfaction with mammography screening services have shown a large variability between different centres. High levels of client satisfaction within Screening Programmes encourage attendees to recommend breast screening to others,3 while unsatisfied clients are less likely to comply with follow-up appointments.3-4 Aim: To evaluate women’s satisfaction of the Maltese Breast Screening Programme (MBSP) in its prevalent call. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted by telephone to collect data retrospectively from a purposively defined, random sample of 380 women who had accepted to be screened until the time of study. The sample included women born between 1950 and 1954, comprising those who received a normal result and those recalled for further tests. Thematic analysis was applied to women’s qualitative responses. Results: The emergent five themes included accessibility, efficiency, perception, supportive care and acceptability. Women’s experiences of their screening appointment, care perception and overall programme were described in a very positive way (‘good service – 31.3%’, ‘excellent service – 68.7%’) with the majority of clients willing to re-attend and recommend the programme to others. For satisfaction related to screening appointments, 95.5% were very satisfied, 99.2% were very satisfied with the standard of care and 68.7% were very satisfied with the whole programme. However, a minority of participants (29.74%) faced difficulties in accessing the unit, resulting in less programme satisfaction. Those who found mammography ‘severely uncomfortable’ also found it ‘severely painful’ (67.6%), which had a less excellent result on client satisfaction. Women related this negatively to radiographers’ confidence, care and communication. More than half of participants experienced anxiety prior to mammography (56.3%) and higher anxiety (92.3%) when recalled. Conclusions: Our results concur with earlier studies showing high satisfaction among women in other breast screening programmes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown