Information provided by Italian breast cancer screening programmes: a comparison between 2001 and 2014

Debate on efficacy, benefits, and risks of breast cancer screening continues to rage, and scientific controversy surrounding overdiagnosis, false positives/false negatives, raises questions about communication to women attending screening programmes. The study compares information provided by invitation letters and leaflets of Italian breast screening programmes in 2001 (N=47) and 2014 (N=80). At both times, nearly all programmes provided adequate practical information and details about screening objectives and test procedures. Information regarding epidemiology/figures was scarce or absent in 2001, while in 2014 a number of programmes began to inform women about screening risks (false negative and positive results and overdiagnosis, 65%, 16%, and 21% respectively) although actual figures were rarely supplied. Despite this small improvement, Italian programmes are still far from giving balanced information. Further efforts should be addressed to providing accurate and transparent information, enabling women to make an informed choice.