Compliance With Screening Mammography Guidelines After a False-Positive Mammogram

Purpose To assess whether women with a false-positive mammogram who do return for screening are less likely to be compliant with screening mammography guidelines than are women with a negative mammogram. Methods This institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant retrospective cohort study includes women >40 years old who received 9,385 consecutive, nonbaseline screening mammograms between December 1, 2012 and December 31, 2013. Using linear regression, we evaluated differences in time between mammograms by prior recall status, after adjusting for location of current mammogram (outpatient office versus mobile unit) and age. Using Fisher's exact test, we evaluated the association between compliance with screening guidelines and the recall status on prior mammogram, and compared by location the proportions of noncompliant women who were recalled from prior mammogram. Results Time between mammograms does not differ based on prior recall status (P = .83). There is no association between compliance with screening mammography guidelines and recall status on prior mammogram (ACR guidelines P = .398, United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines P = .416). Noncompliant women recalled on prior mammogram are more likely to undergo mammography at the outpatient office rather than the mobile unit (ACR guidelines P = .0004, United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines P = .0032). Conclusions A prior false-positive mammogram is not a significant deterrent to compliance with screening guidelines in those women who return for screening.