Determinants of mammography screening uptake among women attending family health centers in Ankara, Türkiye: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess sociodemographic characteristics, health-seeking behaviors, and breast cancer screening beliefs among women aged 18-69 years attending Family Health Centers (FHCs) in Ankara, Türkiye, and to determine predictors of participation in mammography screening. It is design as a descriptive, cross-sectional study. METHODS: Between April 2024 and January 2025, data were collected from 718 women using a sociodemographic questionnaire and the Turkish-adapted Breast Cancer Screening Beliefs Scale (originally developed by Kwok et al., validated by Türkoğlu et al.). Descriptive analyses, Chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression were performed with IBM SPSS 25.0. Variables with p < 0.20 in univariate analyses were entered into multivariate modeling, and statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between age groups in terms of marital status, education level, housing situation, presence of chronic disease, general health perception, and history of non-breast cancer screening (p < 0.001). According to the logistic regression analysis, women who are aware of screening programs are 8.50 times more likely to have a mammogram, those who have undergone non-breast cancer screening are 5.52 times more likely, those with chronic diseases are 1.98 times more likely, and those who describe their health perception as "good/very good" are 1.90 times more likely. (Nagelkerke R² = 0.465). CONCLUSION: Mammography participation is influenced by both structural and personal determinants. Enhancing awareness, strengthening primary-care education, and addressing financial barriers could substantially improve screening uptake and facilitate earlier breast cancer diagnosis among Turkish women.