2009 recommendations led to lower screening rates for women 65+

The 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) breast cancer screening recommendations were followed by a noticeable decrease in screening rates for women ages 65 and older, according to a study published in Women’s Health Issues.

The USPSTF released its revised recommendations in November 2009. The guidelines recommended against mammography for women ages 40 to 49, recommended biennial mammograms for women ages 50 to 74, and made no recommendations regarding patients older than 75.

Miao Jiang, PhD, a research fellow at the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute and adjunct faculty with the George Mason University department of health administration and policy, and colleagues studied the impact of those guidelines by looking at Medicare fee-for-service claims data from 2005 to 2012.

The statistics show that, from 2005 to November 2009, the screening rate for women ages 65 to 90 was steadily increasing. Once the recommendations were released, however, the screening rate dropped 1.76 per 1,000 women.

Three years after the recommendations, the overall screening rate had dropped 2.7 per 1,000 women. For ages 75 to 84 specifically, the screening rate dropped 3.75 per 1,000 women. And for women ages 85 to 90, it dropped 3.57 per 1,000 women.

“Women 75 and older have been affected most significantly; previous slow growth in screening rates in this group is now in decline,” the authors wrote.

According to Jiang et al., the controversy surrounding the USPSTF’s revised recommendations, combined with other organizations maintaining their endorsement of annual mammograms for women ages 40 and older, likely confused patients and physicians alike.

“The introduction of new and conflicting guidelines has likely resulted in patients and physicians alike reconsidering long-standing patterns of care,” the authors wrote. “Behavioral changes should be anticipated when professional organizations issue competing guidelines; their important public policy implications may impact distinct demographic groups differently, and their results may not be fully quantifiable for many years after their implementation.”

Michael Walter
Michael Walter, Managing Editor

Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.

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