FARMINGTON -- The Davis County Health Department is offering $15 worth of free groceries to women whose income qualifies them for free mammograms.
The grocery vouchers, provided by the Utah Cancer Control Program with funds from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, are "an incentive for some women who may be reluctant to get a mammogram," said Alison Garlick, a community health educator with the Health Department.To qualify, women must be between the ages of 40 to 64 and have an annual household income that does not exceed 250 percent of federal poverty guidelines. For a single woman, that's $17,802 and for a woman with a family of four it's $35,850.
Natalie Scovill, a registered nurse with the Health Department, said some women resist getting mammograms even when there's an indication something is wrong.
"We had one lady who waited a year after she found a lump. She didn't get a mammogram because she was scared and she had no insurance. She's had to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy and we don't know if she's going to make it," Scovill said.
Other women convince themselves that if nothing appears to be wrong, there's no need to have the procedure.
"The thinking is, if nothing's wrong, why bother," said Garlick.
However, women 40 or older should get a mammogram every one to two years, the National Institutes of Health recommends. By age 40, the chances of a woman getting breast cancer are one out of 217. By age 50, the odds are one out of 50 and by age 60 one out of 24.
Even though better equipment is now being used, women are still reluctant to endure the discomfort sometimes associated with mammograms, Garlick said. But, "a brief second of pain is worth several years of living with breast cancer," she said.
Women interested in getting mammograms through the Davis County Health Department should call the Nursing Division at 451-3315 to make an appointment. Female registered nurses will provide breast, pap, and pelvic examinations and refer patients to local hospitals for the mammograms. Once the mammograms are performed, the grocery vouchers will be issued. For those who do not qualify for the free test, a fee sliding scale based on income is available.
Other county health departments are also offering the grocery voucher incentive, Garlick said.