Two-year-span breast cancer screening uptake in Japan after the COVID-19 pandemic and its association with the COVID-19 vaccination

Abstract

Abstract Purpose There is a limited information on whether COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a decreased breast cancer screening uptake and if COVID-19 vaccination was associated with an increase of screening uptake. Our study explored a two-year span (2020 to 2022) uptake of breast cancer screening in Japan after the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed its association with the COVID-19 vaccination. Methods This is an analysis targeting the 6,100 women without cancer history who were aged 40 to 74 years at the 2021 survey of the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS), a web-based prospective cohort survey of 23,000 individuals, and also participated its 2022 survey. We examined the regular breast cancer screening uptake before the pandemic and two-year-span breast cancer screening uptake after the pandemic. We further employed multivariable Poisson regression model to seek any association between COVID-19 vaccination and screening uptake after the COVID-19 pandemic inception. Result Of 6,110, 38.2% regularly participated in the screening before the pandemic and 46.9% did so after the pandemic. Individuals unvaccinated due to health reasons (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.29–0.77, p = 0.003) and for other reasons (IRR = 0.73, 95% confidence interval: 0.62–0.86, p < 0.001) were less likely to undergo screening compared to fully vaccinated individuals. There was no dose relationship between the vaccination and post-pandemic screening uptake. Conclusion There was no long-term decrease of the breast cancer screening uptake during the pandemic in Japan. The vaccination was linked to increased uptake, but the booster shot did not show a similar association with uptake.