Diabetes a barrier to breast cancer screening?

Even as women with diabetes are at higher risk of breast cancer, diabetic women get so hassled managing the chronic condition that they often end up leaving other preventative actions, like screening for cancer, to fall by the wayside, a study has found.

Women with diabetes are 14 percent less likely to receive a mammogram compared to women without diabetes.

"Our study found having diabetes posed a significant barrier to breast cancer screening even after considering a woman's socioeconomic status, a known contributor to disparities in care among women," said Lorraine Lipscombe, a staff physician at Women's College Hospital in Toronto.

For the study, researchers examined women aged 50 to 69 years with diabetes between 1999 and 2010.

Besides diabetes, the researchers found low socioeconomic status as an additional obstacle to preventive care in an already disadvantaged population.

To improve cancer screening in diabetes patients, initiatives should focus on support and incentives for diabetes care providers and greater education for more socially disadvantaged populations, added the researchers.

The study appeared in the journal Diabetic Medicine.