Study: Women Tend to Overestimate Value of Screening in Preventing Breast Cancer Deaths

Women who get screened for breast cancer may tend to overestimate the effectiveness of screening in preventing breast cancer deaths, according to researchers.

However, it is not obvious that correcting their impression of the value of breast cancer screening would be constructive, the researchers reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Researchers interviewed 895 women between the ages of 40 and 80, none of whom had breast cancer, and asked them to estimate the effectiveness of regular screening for the prevention of breast cancer deaths in women over 50.

More than half of the women interviewed said they thought screening reduced the risk of death by 50 to 75 percent.

Only 20 percent knew that breast cancer screening actually reduces the risk of death from breast cancer by 25 percent.

An overly optimistic view of the effectiveness of breast cancer screening tended to be linked with more positive attitudes about screening, and an intention to be screened in the future, the researchers added.

Correcting this misimpression, the researchers said, could have the unfortunate effect of resulting in fewer women being screened.

Other Sources: British Medical Association