Study
Shows Not Enough Older Women Get Mammograms
Older American women are not getting as many mammograms
as they say, or think they are, according to a report in the American
Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The study also found that African-American, Asian-American,
and Hispanic women are receiving even fewer screenings than Caucasian
women.
While experts say it is no surprise that women remember
having more mammograms than they actually do, the findings do have
troubling policy implications.
"When we are making policy decisions [on breast-cancer
screening], simply asking people is not enough," says Dr. Christopher
Kagay, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Annual mammograms to detect possible tumors are
recommended for women ages 40 and older.
Breast cancer is the second leading cancer killer
among women in the US. The odds of developing breast cancer increase
as a woman gets older.
Overall, breast-cancer screening rates have risen
over the past 15 years, but they have dipped during the last five.
For the new study, the researchers looked at Medicare
claims data on 146,669 women in 11 metropolitan areas around the country.
These statistics were then compared with what the women themselves
had reported.
Seventy percent to 80 percent of women, ages 65
to 69, reported getting at least one mammogram every two years.
But the data showed that only 61 percent of the
women actually received regular screening, with the lowest rates among
African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic women.
Overall, the biennial screening rate in 2000 and
2001 was 50.6 percent for non-Hispanic Caucasian women, 40.5 percent
for African-American women, 34.7 percent for Asian-American women,
36.3 percent for Hispanic women, and only 12.5 percent for Native-American
women.
According to Dr. Alan Astrow at Maimonides Medical
Center, it is not unusual for patients to think they are taking better
care of themselves than they actually are, whether it is medications,
screening, or other procedures.
One possible limitation of this study, he adds,
is that the researchers cannot be sure that the Medicare claims data
and the resulting explanation tell the full story.
But for Dr. Kagay, lead author of the study, the
results point up the need to keep hammering home awareness and education
messages regarding breast-cancer screening.
"The data is important for people who are basically
interested in asking, 'Are we meeting our goals for getting elderly
women screened?' And that can range from an individual doctor evaluating
his own practice patterns to a policy maker trying to allocate money
for public-health resources," says Dr. Kagay.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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