Validating self-reported mammography use in vulnerable communities: findings and recommendations

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Disparities
• Medical Sociology

Background:

• Health surveys commonly report mammography use between 70%-80% for women in the past two years.
• Overreporting of mammography use may disproportionately affect low-income African-American and Latina women.
• Self-report inaccuracies can bias the estimated associations between patient characteristics and mammography use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the extent of overreporting of mammography use in low-income minority women.
• To determine if self-report inaccuracies bias associations between patient characteristics and mammography use.

Main Methods:

• Venue-based sampling was used in two low-income Chicago communities.
• Women completed a survey and consented to medical record review.
• Self-reported mammography data were compared with documented evidence from medical records.

Main Results:

• While 73% of women self-reported a mammogram in the past two years, only 44% of these reports were documented in medical records.
• Significant overreporting of mammography use was found across all ethnic groups studied.
• The discrepancy between self-reported and documented mammography use was substantial.

Conclusions:

• Self-reported mammography data considerably overestimate actual use prevalence in vulnerable populations.
• Relying on self-reported data provides an overly optimistic view of mammography utilization, especially in minority communities.