Coverage rate of opportunistic and organised breast cancer screening in France: Department-level estimation

In France, the national breast cancer screening programme (NBCSP), targeting women aged 50–74 years was rolled out nationwide in 2004. It aims at reducing breast cancer mortality. In addition to the NBCSP, the use of opportunistic screening is permitted in France. The objective of this study is to estimate both opportunistic use and overall coverage rates of breast cancer screening, among women 40–84 years of age, in France. The French medico-administrative health data system (SNDS) was used to identify women performing an opportunistic or organised mammography screening in France in 2016–2017. The two-yearly opportunistic mammography screening is 18 % among women aged 40–84; it is 11 % among women aged 50–74, i.e., the target age range for organised screening, 36 % among women aged 40–49 and 13 % among women aged 75–84. The overall two-yearly screening coverage is 48 % for all women aged 40–84; it is 60 % among women aged 50–74, 36 % among women 40–49 and 16 % for those aged 75–84. Geographical variations in screening are lessened when the two screening strategies are considered, as they balance each other. Although coverage in the NBCSP is around 50 % in France, more than one third of the women make use of opportunistic screening within and outside the target age range. Organized screening appears to improve equity of access to mammography screening service. The lack of data on opportunistic screening practices hinders the evaluation of French screening practices as a whole. •We estimated overall breast cancer screening coverage and opportunistic screening for the whole France, by age for women aged 40–80 and by department.•In the screening programme target age group (50–74 years), the overall breast cancer screening coverage in France is estimated at 60 % including 11 % of opportunistic screening.•Outside the target age group, opportunistic screening is estimated at 36 % for women aged 40–49 % and 13 % for women aged 75–84.•Estimations varied greatly across departments