According to a Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, 57 percent of women in their 40s want mammograms despite recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in November 2009 that most women don’t need to get mammograms until age 50, HealthDay News reports.
The poll found that two-thirds of the women wanting mammograms were not even aware of the task force’s recommendations despite widespread news coverage of the recommendations.
The women polled also said they believe women should start getting mammograms at age 40. Doctors echoed those beliefs, citing that one of four women diagnosed with breast cancer over the last few years have been under the age of 50.
Almost half of the women polled said they believed the task force pushed back the age to 50 to reduce healthcare costs, while 30 percent said they believe the recommendation was put in place to reduce the number of false-positive results.
Dr. Daniel Kopans, critic of the task force’s recommendations, said the task force made the recommendations based on faulty statistical analysis of the benefits of mammograms. Kopans said the number of women in their 40s wanting mammograms is good news. Findings from the poll suggest that these women are more informed than the task force, he added.
