About 1 in 5 women ages 50-74 are not getting their breast cancer screenings as frequently as recommended, which the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says is every two years.
HelpAdvisor — which provides information from health professionals, benefits experts and government resources — analyzed data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to determine how many women are skipping their mammograms.
It found at least 25% of women 50-74 in 13 states had not had a breast cancer screening in two years. In Wyoming, it was 34.2%, the highest percentage for any state.
“A shocking percentage of older women are not receiving mammograms at the recommended intervals,” lead study author Christian Worstell, a senior Medicare and health insurance expert with HelpAdvisor, told Fox News Digital.
Breast cancer is the second-most common type of cancer in women, and the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States and Georgia. According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women will develop the cancer in their lifetime, and the disease accounts for a third of all diagnosed cancers.
Why aren’t women getting tested?
“The most common (reasons) are socioeconomic barriers to care, limited knowledge of the benefits of screening, geographic limitations, discomfort with mammography, anxiety from the exam or the possible results, confusion with recommended screening intervals and previous negative health care encounters,” Dr. Ethan Cohen told Fox.
Cohan is a breast radiologist and an associate professor of breast imaging at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was not involved in the study.
“Women who are not regularly screened are at higher risk of developing symptomatic cancer, which has a worse prognosis and is more difficult to treat,” he told Fox.
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