Breast cancer screening
Please note that these indicators are not currently up to date and will be replaced shortly with dashboards. In the meantime the most currently available data is available at https://www.data.act.gov.au or contact healthinfo@act.gov.au
Commentary
- BreastScreen Australia is the national breast cancer screening program, which aims to reduce deaths from breast cancer through early detection of the disease. In this program, women over 40 can have a free mammogram every two years, with women aged between 50 and 74 actively being invited to participate.1
- In 2018-19, nearly 1.9 million women aged 50-74 had a mammogram in Australia – an age-standardised rate of 54.2%. The highest age-standardised screening rate for women aged 50-74 was recorded in Tasmania (59.8%), while the lowest was observed in the Northern Territory (38.0%). During the same period, over 30,000 ACT women aged 50-74 years participated in the BreastScreen program, and the age-standardised participation rate was 58.1%.2
References
1. Commonwealth Department of Health. BreastScreen Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Health; 2021 [cited 2022 Apr 6].
2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2021. Canberra: AIHW; 2021 [cited 2022 Apr 6].
Chart
Breast cancer screening participation rate, by state and territory, 2018-2019
Data
To access the data, select "View source data" link at the bottom of the visualisation. This link will open up a data table that you can download.
Codes and sources
Sources Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2020. BreastScreen Australia monitoring report 2020. Cancer series no. 129. Cat. no. CAN 135. Canberra: AIHW.