Re-attendance to mammographic screening after a false positive screening result

Abstract

Objective

Attendance as well as re-attendance is important for an effective screening program for breast cancer. We aimed to evaluate re-attendance among women with a false positive versus negative screening result in BreastScreen Norway.

Methods

The study sample included 3,990,388 screening examinations performed between 1996 and 2021 among women with an invitation to the subsequent screening examination available, that is, women eligible for re-attendance in the period 1998–2023. Mixed logistic regression was used to analyze the association between screening results, including negative versus any false positive, and negative versus false positive with or without a needle biopsy, and attendance in the subsequent screening round. We adjusted for screening history and age.

Results

Crude attendance rates in the subsequent screening round were 90.8% for those with a negative result and 88.3% for those with a false positive result. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for re-attendance after a false positive result was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.87–0.93) using a negative screening result as the reference. Also using negative screening result as the reference, adjusted OR for re-attendance among those with a false positive screening result without a needle biopsy was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.91–0.96) while it was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.82–0.87) for those with a false positive result including a biopsy.

Conclusions

Women invited to BreastScreen Norway re-attended screening less often after a false positive compared to a negative result. The benefits of regular attendance should be communicated to women targeted for breast cancer screening.