Mammography use tied to other preventive tests in older women

(HealthDay)—Women enrolled in Medicare who undergo screening mammography seem to have increased awareness and use of other preventive screening measures, according to a study published online June 5 in Radiology.

Stella K. Kang, M.D., from New York University in New York City, and colleagues used Medicare claims (2010 to 2014) to retrospectively assess whether there is an association between use of screening mammography and use of a variety of other preventive services in female Medicare enrollees.

Of 555,705 patients, 33.4 percent underwent mammography. The researchers found that women who underwent index screening mammography were more likely than unscreened women to later undergo Papanicolaou test (odds ratio, 1.49), bone mass measurement (odds ratio, 1.70), and influenza vaccine (odds ratio, 1.45), when adjusting for patient demographics, comorbidities, geographic covariates, and baseline preventive care. Among women who had not used these preventive services in the two years before the index mammography, use of these preventive services was similar regardless of false-positive mammography findings or true-negative findings.

"In beneficiaries of U.S. Medicare, use of screening mammography was associated with higher likelihood of adherence to other preventive guidelines, without a negative association between false-positive results and cervical cancer screening," the authors write.

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