This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Women who undergo screening mammograms take other preventive measures
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Women on Medicare who had a screening mammogram were more likely to abide by other preventive guidelines, according to findings recently published in Radiology.
“In diagnostic imaging, we strive to provide answers for each patient but also to understand the broader influence of imaging on a population’s health outcomes. Even if my research predicts a solution to provide the greatest benefit to a group, this projection does not necessarily translate well in real world practice. It becomes important to understand the way patients and providers approach testing, and how to support decisions for better health at opportune times,” Stella K. Kang, MD, MSc, of the department of radiology, New York University School of Medicine, told Healio Family Medicine.
Researchers examined 185,625 Medicare claims from 2010 to 2014 from women who underwent screening mammography and divided them into groups based on the mammogram results. These data were compared with a control group of women who did not have a screening mammogram in 2012. Researchers then looked at the relationship between participants’ screening status and the likelihood of undergoing several additional preventive measures.
Kang and colleagues found those who underwent the screening mammogram, regardless of the results, were more likely than unscreened women to later have a bone mass measurement (OR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.63-1.78), Papanicolaou test (OR = 1.49; 95% CI, 1.4-1.58), and influenza vaccine (OR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.37-1.53). In addition, those who not had undergone these three measures in the 2 years prior to a screening mammogram were not likely to undergo them regardless of whether the mammogram came back with false-positive or true-negative results.
“We were open to the possibility that false-positive results could have some negative association with future use of preventive tests, but no such trend was found,” Kang said in the interview. “Despite general concerns that false-positive results could affect patients’ adherence to breast cancer screening, it seems the patients in the study still perceived value in multiple preventive measures.”
She acknowledged the nature that some of the diseases and tests may cause some patients worry, and provided suggestions for discussing them with patients.
“The common goal of these preventive measures is to protect against disease early, before symptoms appear and the disease needs more invasive treatment. The approach of testing or treating many people to prevent a few people from dying of the disease is not perfect, and it is possible that additional tests may be needed to understand a person’s actual chances of having the disease,” Kang said.
“It may seem worrisome that there is a chance of experiencing an additional workup after the initial test, only to arrive at a negative final result, but a large study of women in the Medicare population showed that these additional workups did not deter women from having future screening tests, and in fact the patients were more likely to use other preventive measures,” she continued.
Kang added that the findings could be used in policy-level discussions that determine how preventive services are bundled and recommended to patients. – by Janel Miller
Disclosures: Kang reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.