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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation that all women get mammograms at age 40 instead of the previously recommended age 50. George Mason University College of Public Health Interim Associate Dean for Research Alison Evans Cuellar is chair of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). She comments on the USPSTF’s newest recommendation.
“The new recommendation to get mammograms at 40 means communities need to really pitch in. Screening rates for breast cancer are only 67% for low-income women, and 43% for women who are uninsured, and we need communities involved to increase these rates,” said Dr. Cuellar.
“One encouraging step in Virginia is that legislators expanded Medicaid insurance, which will help women get their breast cancer screens. We also know what works to get those screening rates up. We know that communities and health systems can make a difference, for example, by hiring community health workers, delivering one-on-one and group education about screening and cancer, and using provider reminders—just to name a few — to improve screening rates by 15 percentage points or more.”
The CPSTF is an independent, nonfederal panel of public health and prevention experts that provides recommendations and findings on programs, services, and other interventions to protect and improve population health.