Visually impaired women less likely to undergo mammography screening for breast cancer

Fewer women with visual impairment (VI) undergo mammography screening for breast cancer compared to their counterparts without VI, a study has shown.

“Timely mammography to screen for breast cancer in accordance with the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations can reduce morbidity and mortality substantially,” the authors said.

A total of 1,044 women aged 65–72 years with no vision loss (NVL), partial vision loss (PVL), and severe vision loss (SVL) were matched (384 in each group) based on age, race, time in Medicare, urbanicity of residence, and overall health in this retrospective, longitudinal cohort study. Women with pre-existing breast cancer were excluded.

Multivariable conditional logistic regression modeling was used to compare the odds of undergoing screening mammography within a 2-year follow-up period among the three groups.

The proportion of women undergoing one or more mammography screening within the 2-year follow-up was 69.0 percent (n=240) for the NVL group, 56.9 percent (n=198) for the PVL group, and 56.0 percent (n=195) for the SVL group (p=0.0005).

The mean number of mammography screenings undertaken per patient during the 5-year period (3-year look-back plus 2-year follow-up) was 3.1±2.0, 2.5±2.0, and 2.3±2.1 for the NVL, PVL, and SVL groups, respectively (p<0.0001).

Moreover, women with SVL were 42-percent less likely to undergo mammography (odds ratio [OR], 0.58, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.37–0.90; p=0.01), while those with PVL had 44-percent lower odds (OR, 0.56, 95 percent CI, 0.36–0.87; p=0.009), compared with those with NVL.

“Clinicians should look for ways to help ensure that patients with VI undergo mammography and other preventive screenings as recommended by USPSTF,” the authors said.