ArticleMedical care2017
Women's Awareness of and Responses to Messages About Breast Cancer Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment: Results From a 2016 National Survey.
Article in Medical care, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Shared decision-making for supporting women's decisions about breast cancer screening.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Should women aged 70-74 be invited to participate in screening mammography? A report on two Australian community juries.BMJ open · 2018Trial
- It depends on where you stand on screening: health professionals' awareness, perspectives, and approaches to overdiagnosis in cancer screening - a qualitative interview study.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Acceptable accuracy for medical AI: a survey of physicians and the general population in Sweden.BMJ health & care informatics · 2026Article
- Skeptical reactions to breast cancer screening benefits and harms: Antecedents, consequences, and implications for screening communication.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Evaluation of how US women react to a decision aid informing them of the harms and benefits of mammography: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Mammography Screening Preferences Among Screening-Eligible Women in Their 40s : A National U.S. Survey.Annals of internal medicine · 2024Observational
- Risk-Adapted Breast Screening for Women at Low Predicted Risk of Breast Cancer: An Online Discrete Choice Experiment.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2024Article
- Prevalence and Potential Consequences of Exposure to Conflicting Information about Mammography: Results from Nationally-Representative Survey of U.S. Adults.Health communication · 2023Article
- Online information about mammography screening in Italy from 2014 to 2021.BMC women's health · 2022Article
- Clinical decisions using AI must consider patient values.Nature medicine · 2022Article
- What is the effect of a decision aid on knowledge, values and preferences for lung cancer screening? An online pre-post study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Discussions of Potential Mammography Benefits and Harms among Patients with Limited Health Literacy and Providers: "Oh, There are Harms?"Journal of health communication · 2020Article
- Article
- Effects of Media Exposure to Conflicting Information About Mammography: Results From a Population-based Survey Experiment.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2019Article
- Willingness to decrease mammogram frequency among women at low risk for hereditary breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Influence of Income on Cancer Incidence and Death among Patients in Aomori, JapanAsian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2018Article
- How Do Women View Risk-Based Mammography Screening? A Qualitative Study.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Article
- Overdiagnosis in primary care: framing the problem and finding solutions.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2018Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundScientists, clinicians, and other experts aim to maximize the benefits of cancer screening while minimizing its harms. Chief among these harms are overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Although available data suggest that patient awareness of these harms is low, we know little about how patients respond to information about these phenomena.
objectivesUsing the case of breast cancer screening, this study assesses women's awareness of and reactions to statements about overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
methodsWe draw on data from a 2016 population-based survey of US women aged 35-55 years that oversampled women of lower socioeconomic position (those living at or below 100% of federal poverty level) (N=429).
resultsResults showed that women's awareness of overdiagnosis (16.5%) and overtreatment (18.0%) was low, and women under age 40 were least likely to have heard about overdiagnosis. Most women did not evaluate statements about these harms positively: <1 in 4 agreed with and found statements about overdiagnosis and overtreatment to be believable, and even fewer evaluated them as strong arguments to consider in their own mammography decision making. Women with a recent mammogram history were particularly unconvinced by overdiagnosis and overtreatment arguments.
conclusionsA majority of women were unaware of 2 important harms of breast cancer screening: overdiagnosis and overtreatment. Most did not find statements about these harms to be believable and persuasive. Communication interventions, supported by evidence from health communication research, are necessary to improve patient understanding of screening's harms, promote informed decision making, and, in turn, ensure high-value care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.