Screening mammography: Guidelines versus clinical practice

Objective: To understand physicians' comprehension of breast cancer screening guidelines and the existing literature on breast cancer screening, and whether this contributes to how patient screening is implemented in clinical practice. Methods: A survey of 18 questions was distributed across the United States via e-mail and social media resources to physicians and medical students of all disciplines and levels of training. Responses from 728 physicians and medical students were reviewed. Respondents were from over 200 different institutions and over 60 different medical specialties. Results: Our survey demonstrates that more than half of the participants felt uncomfortable in their knowledge of breast cancer screening recommendations (399/728, 54.8%) and existing literature on breast cancer screening (555/728, 76.2%). When stratified based on level of training, those at the attending level reported a greater level of comfort in their knowledge of breast cancer screening recommendations (168/238, 70.6%) and literature (95/238, 39.9%) compared with respondents at the trainee level. Attending physicians are also more likely to recommend screening for patients between the ages of 40-49 years old (209/238, 87.7%) compared to those at the trainee level. Responses on whether to screen based on age were most consistent for patients ages 50-74, with greater than 90% of the respondents endorsing screening mammogram for this age group in all levels of training. There were greater inconsistencies in the support to screen age groups 40-49 and 75+. Conclusions: The results showed a disparity in screening practices by clinicians in all levels of training, particularly for patients ages 40-49 and 75+, and for the interval of screening. Later initiation with less frequent intervals between screens may reduce the impact of screening on mortality reduction.