BACKGROUND: Data collection in the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme monitors performance in a different cohort of women each year. METHODS: This paper follows a single cohort study of 57,425 women (aged 50-53, when first invited) over four screening rounds to find: how many women attend screening and how often; how many were assessed; how many times they were assessed; and the number of cancers detected at each round. RESULTS: Average attendance in each round was 76.9% and has remained constant. Only 62% of women have attended all four rounds, but 89.9% have been screened at least once, the average number of attendances being 3.5. Average assessment rate decreased from 7.3 to 3.5%. A total of 11.3% of women were assessed once, 0.91% twice and 0.06% three times. Cancer detection rates have more than doubled from 3.3 per 1000 screened to 6.9. CONCLUSIONS: Current monitoring shows constant uptake over time, but when looking at a cohort of individual woman, a much larger percentage have 'ever' attended and a smaller number have attended all invitations. The chance of a woman being assessed at all, if she attends all four rounds, is 12.3%, which can be calculated by summating the recall rates in each round.
BACKGROUND: Data collection in the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme monitors performance in a different cohort of women each year. METHODS: This paper follows a single cohort study of 57,425 women (aged 50-53, when first invited) over four screening rounds to find: how many women attend screening and how often; how many were assessed; how many times they were assessed; and the number of cancers detected at each round. RESULTS: Average attendance in each round was 76.9% and has remained constant. Only 62% of women have attended all four rounds, but 89.9% have been screened at least once, the average number of attendances being 3.5. Average assessment rate decreased from 7.3 to 3.5%. A total of 11.3% of women were assessed once, 0.91% twice and 0.06% three times. Cancer detection rates have more than doubled from 3.3 per 1000 screened to 6.9. CONCLUSIONS: Current monitoring shows constant uptake over time, but when looking at a cohort of individual woman, a much larger percentage have 'ever' attended and a smaller number have attended all invitations. The chance of a woman being assessed at all, if she attends all four rounds, is 12.3%, which can be calculated by summating the recall rates in each round.
Authors: Julia E H Nolte; Till Neumann; Jennifer M Manne; Janet Lo; Anja Neumann; Sarah Mostardt; Suhny Abbara; Udo Hoffmann; Thomas J Brady; Juergen Wasem; Steven K Grinspoon; G Scott Gazelle; Alexander Goehler Journal: Eur J Prev Cardiol Date: 2013-03-28 Impact factor: 7.804