Breast cancer mammographic screening by different guidelines among women of different races/ethnicities

Mammographic screening is a common diagnostic tool for breast cancer among average-risk women. However, breast cancer screening guidelines differ between societies and organizations. Appropriate adherence to screening guidelines helps early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, which subsequently improves breast cancer survival. We used three national guidelines to define adherence recommended by US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), American Cancer Society (ACS), and American College of Radiology (ACR), which included different criteria for age and frequency. (USPSTF: 50–74, biennial; ACS: 45–54, yearly, 55+ biennial; ACR: 40+, yearly) We hypothesized that adherence rates for mammographic screening may be lower among minorities (non-Hispanic black (NHB) and Hispanic/Latino) than among non-Hispanic whites (NHW) regardless of the guideline applied. We conducted a cross-sectional study using nationally representative survey data from the 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Adherence to mammographic screening among NHW, NHB, and Hispanic/Latino populations were calculated. A total of 1,751 survey samples were used in the final analysis. Adherence rates of each guideline for average-risk woman in this study were as follows: USPSTF - 77.37%, ACS - 68.41%, and ACR - 57.71%. Additionally, our results demonstrated that the adherence rate was higher among NHB when compared with NHW women regardless of which guideline was applied. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that both NHB ethnicity and insurance coverage exhibited strong positive associations with adherence to breast cancer screening. Our findings support other studies’ results that different racial/ethnic and socio-demographic factors can affect screening adherence. Therefore, healthcare providers should promote breast cancer screening especially among NHW/Hispanic women and women lacking insurance coverage.