SCIENCE / MEDICINE : Mammogram Study Disclosed

Many women over 50 don’t get mammograms because they mistakenly think they don’t need them, according to a recent American Medical Assn. study. The study found that while more than 90% of the women polled in various surveys visited a doctor regularly, just 25% to 41% received X-ray breast examinations during the previous year.

Most of the 7,000 women surveyed who didn’t receive a mammography said they skipped the breast cancer screening procedure because they didn’t think it was necessary or because they didn’t have any breast problems, the study found. The next-largest group said their doctors never recommended the examination.

The lack of breast cancer screening may help explain why breast cancer mortality rates have not declined over the past three decades, the report says. Less-educated and poorer women were even less likely to receive mammograms. The American Cancer Society recommends women have one mammogram between the ages of 35 and 39, one every to two years between 40 and 49, and one annually after that.