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Preventive Healthcare Services

Preventive Healthcare Services

Preventive healthcare services keep people healthy via frequent check-ups, screening, and counseling. They primarily aid in disease prevention rather than treating an acute or chronic illness. Preventive treatment also keeps individuals productive and energetic, allowing them to work well into their retirement years. Examples of preventive care services include:

Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention

Levels of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention

Health promotion allows a person to control the determinants of health, resulting in an improved health status. It enhances the quality of life and reduces premature deaths. Health promotion and illness prevention programs help people make beneficial choices to reduce the risk of disease and disabilities. There are three health promotion and illness prevention levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention.
In primary prevention, actions taken before disease onset prevent the disease from...

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Clinical Imaging of Microwave Mammography

Clinical Imaging of Microwave Mammography

Published on: November 14, 2025

Promoting screening mammography: insight or uptake?

¹Department of Radiology, Cook County John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, Chicago, IL 60612-9985, USA. jkeen@ccbhs.org

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM

|November 9, 2010

Summary

Screening mammography for women aged 40-49 offers minimal life-saving benefits but significant harms like overdiagnosis. Women are 10 times more likely to face overtreatment than to have their lives saved by screening.

Area of Science:

Medical Screening
Preventive Medicine
Radiology

Background:

The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends individualized decisions for mammography screening in women aged 40-49.
Public opinion often favors screening mammography due to the "early detection saves lives" message, potentially overlooking associated harms.

Purpose of the Study:

To enhance physician and patient understanding of the age-related benefits and harms of screening mammography.
To critically evaluate the effectiveness and risks of mammography screening for women in their 40s.

Main Methods:

Analysis of data on screening mammography outcomes, including cancer detection rates, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment.
Calculation of the number of screenings, diagnostic exams, and biopsies required to save one life in the target age group.

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Main Results:

Routine screening mammography at age 50 saves approximately 1 life per 1000 women over 10 years.
Nearly half of screen-detected cancers are pseudo-disease, and women aged 40-49 are 10 times more likely to experience overdiagnosis and overtreatment than benefit from life-saving screening.
Saving one life requires approximately 9600 screening mammograms, 960 diagnostic exams, and 90-140 biopsies for women aged 40-49.

Conclusions:

The harms of screening mammography, including overdiagnosis and overtreatment, significantly outweigh the benefits for women aged 40-49.
Advocates should shift focus from promoting screening uptake to promoting informed decision-making and insight into the risks and benefits.