Table 1.

Preprogram characteristics of municipalities by date of entry to the screening program¹

Date of program entry	Number of municipalities (N = 138)	Female population, 1989–19942	Percentage of females aged 50–69, 1989–19943	Breast cancer incidence, 1989–19944	Five‐year breast cancer prevalence, January 19945	Percentage of females aged 50–69 screened at first invitation6
January to June 1995	33	11,045 ± 16,349	19 ± 2	112 ± 23	419 ± 104	81 ± 5
July to December 1995	34	10,887 ± 10,785	19 ± 3	117 ± 25	438 ± 100	81 ± 3
January to June 1996	33	12,968 ± 13,851	19 ± 2	120 ± 37	487 ± 111	81 ± 4
July to December 1996	19	13,721 ± 17,217	20 ± 3	130 ± 29	480 ± 87	80 ± 6
January to June 1997	12	10,175 ± 10,574	19 ± 3	113 ± 43	460 ± 164	82 ± 5
July to December 1997	7	8,044 ± 4,601	19 ± 4	102 ± 29	373 ± 115	79 ± 6
p value7		0.95	0.47	0.31	0.03	0.89
All municipalities	138	11,606 ± 13,645	19.0 ± 2.0	117 ± 30	449 ± 111	81 ± 5

¹Plus–minus values are means ± SD. Only municipalities that started organized screening between January 1995 and December 1997.

²The number of females in a municipality averaged over the period 1989–1994.

³Percentage of the female population in a municipality who is aged 50–69 and so eligible for screening, averaged over the period 1989–1994.

⁴Municipality‐specific median over the period 1989–1994 of the annual number of newly diagnosed breast cancer cases per 100,000 female inhabitants.

⁵The number of cancer patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the 5 years preceding January 1994 and still alive at that time per 100,000 female inhabitants of a municipality.

⁶Data available for only 133 municipalities.

⁷ p values are for the Kruskal‐Wallis test of no difference by date of program entry.