Survey unearths confusion among women around when to start mammograms
A new survey from the University of Pennsylvania unearths confusion around when women should begin undergoing regular screening mammograms.
Individuals with an average risk of breast cancer are urged to begin doing so every other year at age 40, according to the latest recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. However, medical societies have differing opinions around when these regular check-ups should start, sowing confusion for healthcare consumers.
Among 1,600 U.S. adults surveyed in April 2024, about 49% said they know that age 40 is when women at average risk should begin screening. However, about 10% believed they should begin at age 20, while another 21% said age 30. Approximately 11% were unsure, and 8% believed screenings start at 50.
“Confusion can arise when medical guidance about detection or treatment changes, as it has in recent years with mammograms,” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, PhD, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a June 30 announcement from the school. “Our data suggest that the recommendation that such screening ordinarily start at 40 years old is not yet widely enough known.”
The number of those who are unsure about breast cancer screening guidelines is more pronounced in younger populations, experts noted. About 16% of women between 18–29 said they don’t know when mammograms should begin, along with 11% of those in their 30s. Both differ “significantly” from the very small percentage of women in their 40s (1%) who were unsure about when to begin screening.
About 72% of those 40–49 correctly said screening should be at 40. That’s compared to 63% of individuals in their 30s, and 59% for women 50–74.
You can read more about the survey and its methodology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.