Impact of an educational intervention on provider knowledge, attitudes, and comfort level regarding counseling women ages 40–49 about breast cancer screening

Figures & data

Table 1 Professional degrees of the participants

Professional degree	Before intervention N (%)	After intervention N (%)
Total	78 (100%)	85* (100%)
Registered nurse	33 (42%)	37 (44%)
Licensed practical nurse	31 (40%)	31 (36%)
Physician	10 (13%)	11 (13%)
Nurse practitioner	4 (5%)	6 (7%)

Notes: Two sets of surveys were conducted: one before the educational intervention and one after the intervention.

* Two subjects did not indicate their professional degrees. The percentage (%) is with respect to the total number of participants who reported their degrees.

Abbreviation: N, number of participants.

Table 2 Screening knowledge and counseling practices

Outcomes	Before intervention N (%)	After interventiond N (%)	P-value
Screening knowledgea			<0.001
Discuss preferences	3 (5.3%)	43 (53.1%)
Wait until age 50 years	7 (12.3%)	31 (38.3%)
Screen all aged 40–49 years	47 (82.4%)	7 (8.6%)
Counseling practices
Discuss benefitsb			0.076
Yes	72 (93.5%)	83 (98.8%)
No	5 (6.5%)	1 (1.2%)
Discuss risksc			<0.001
Yes	26 (33.8%)	76 (90.5%)
No	51 (66.2%)	8 (9.5%)

Notes: Two sets of surveys were conducted: one before the educational intervention and one after the intervention. The responses in the table are for the questions that follow, all of which were asked in the survey.

a For women ages 40–49, do you typically: (choose one) a) recommend mammogram screening; b) recommend waiting until age 50 to start mammogram screening; c) recommend screening based on patient preference?

b Do you typically inform your patients of the potential benefit of mammogram screening? (Yes/no);

c Do you typically inform your patients of the potential risk/harm of mammogram screening? (Yes/no).

d After the survey, participants were questioned what they plan to do in the future.

Abbreviation: N, number of participants.

Figure 1 Outcomes. Comfort level with counseling on benefits, counseling on risks/harms, and discussing patient preference.

Notes: The label “Before” indicates before the intervention, and the label “After” indicates after the intervention. In the boxplots, the 25th and the 75th percentiles are represented at the bottom of and at the top of the box (respectively); the band inside the box represents median (50th percentile). The ends of whiskers represent the 1.5 interquartile range for the lower quartile (bottom) and for the upper quartile (top). Comfort was assessed by using the Likert scale, for which 1= not comfortable and 5= very comfortable.

Figure S1 The US Preventive Services Task Force breast cancer screening guide.

Note: This is adapted from the poster that was handed to each clinic after the educational intervention.

Abbreviations: BIRADS, Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System; USPSTF, US Preventive Services Task Force; VA, US Department of Veterans Affairs.