Study shows that there is no one single intervention that is best for women who can potentially benefit from repeat mammography screening
![Study Details Interventions to Promote Repeat Breast Cancer Screening With Mammography Study Details Interventions to Promote Repeat Breast Cancer Screening With Mammography](https://www.medindia.net/afp/images/US-health-cancer-27622.jpg)
To investigate the effectiveness of these intervention strategies, Sally W. Vernon, MD, of the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research at the University of Texas-Houston, and colleagues, looked at 25 studies that reported estimates of repeat screening for interventions and control groups. They looked at electronic databases through August 2009.
The intervention strategies used by the studies were grouped into three categories: reminders, education/motivation, and counseling. The studies were also classified according to the counseling protocols used, and whether single or multiple interventions were used.
The authors found that the studies were heterogeneous, that is, they differed in their conclusions about similar interventions. This finding could be attributed to a lack of standardization among interventions, or different populations or settings.
They noted that this meta-analysis was limited in its ability to measure the effects of interventions for repeat screening because several studies used interventions not explicitly designed to promote repeat mammography; in addition, many of the studies were conducted over ten years ago.
The authors concluded that integration of individual behavioral interventions with structural-level changes may create sustainable improvements in adherence to breast cancer screening. But more studies are needed.
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In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Jeanne Mandelblatt of Georgetown University Medical Center and Diana Buist, PhD, of the Group Health Research Institute at the University of Washington, write that one of the obstacles to defining the most effective interventions for promoting regular mammography adherence is that women may be choosing not to use mammography because of publicity about mis-diagnoses.
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"It is no longer enough to simply conduct more interventions to understand which work best in motivating individuals to undergo repeat cancer screening," the authors write. "New paradigms, guided by evidence from modeling, novel trials, and new scientific discovery, will be needed to realize the promise of eliminating the burden of cancer."
Source-Eurekalert