2021 Volume 30 Issue 1 Pages 55-59
The outbreak of COVID−19 in Japan since March 2020 has caused many local governments and companies to postpone breast cancer screenings. While they have gradually resumed the screenings since June, it is still unclear whether people are willing to undergo the screening. We therefore conducted an Internet survey to analyze how the COVID−19 epidemic had affected women’s intention to undergo breast cancer screening. The survey was conducted from September 3−7, 2020, and valid responses were received from 4,700 women aged 40−69 years nationwide. About half of the respondents were planning to undergo breast cancer screening this year, but 46% said they were changing their plans. Respondents who were older and who had never been screened regularly were more likely to say that they were changing their plans. Background factors, such as the prevalence of COVID−19 in the area of residence and the presence of an infected person in the vicinity, were not associated with the change in the intention of the subjects to undergo the screening examination. These results suggest that breast awareness is important in normal times, even though it is not yet a familiar concept in Japan. We should continue our activities to promote the recognition of this concept. We plan to conduct another survey of the same scale at the end of this year.
