False-positive results are a common unintended harmful effect of breast cancer screening mammography – the cumulative risk in Europe and the United States of false positives in 10 screening rounds ranges from 20 to 60 percent – and they have long-term psychosocial consequences.
In a longitudinal cohort study of 1,310 women, 454 of whom had abnormal findings on screening mammography, researchers found even three years after being declared free of suspected cancer, women who had a false-positive result consistently reported greater negative psychosocial consequences compared with women with normal test findings.
Specifically, they found six months after final diagnosis, women with false-positive findings reported changes in existential values and inner calmness as great as those reported by women with a true diagnosis of breast cancer (∆=1.15; P=.0145 and ∆=0.13; P=.4232, respectively). Three years after being declared free of cancer, women with false-positive results reported more negative psychosocial consequences compared with women who had normal findings in all 12 psychosocial outcomes (∆>0 for 12 of 12 outcomes; P<.01 for 4 of 12 outcomes).
The pattern of the 12 psychosocial outcomes was consistent at the time of screening and at one, six and 18 months after screening and final diagnosis: women with breast cancer experienced more negative psychosocial consequences than women with false-positive findings, and these women experienced more negative psychosocial consequences than women with normal findings.
That women with false positives reported changes just as great in existential values and inner calmness as women with breast cancer in the first half-year after final diagnosis indicates the significant psychological harm caused by false-positive diagnoses.
Long-Term Psychosocial Consequences of False-Positive Screening Mammography By John Brodersen, PhD and Volkert Dirk Siersma, PhDUniversity of Copenhagen, Denmark