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Benefits and harms of mammography screening

Overview of attention for article published in Breast Cancer Research, May 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#24 of 2,060)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
policy
1 policy source
twitter
92 X users
facebook
7 Facebook pages
googleplus
1 Google+ user
video
2 YouTube creators

Citations

dimensions_citation
242 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
733 Mendeley
citeulike
2 CiteULike
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Title
Benefits and harms of mammography screening
Published in
Breast Cancer Research, May 2015
DOI 10.1186/s13058-015-0525-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Magnus Løberg, Mette Lise Lousdal, Michael Bretthauer, Mette Kalager

Abstract

Mammography screening for breast cancer is widely available in many countries. Initially praised as a universal achievement to improve women's health and to reduce the burden of breast cancer, the benefits and harms of mammography screening have been debated heatedly in the past years. This review discusses the benefits and harms of mammography screening in light of findings from randomized trials and from more recent observational studies performed in the era of modern diagnostics and treatment. The main benefit of mammography screening is reduction of breast-cancer related death. Relative reductions vary from about 15 to 25% in randomized trials to more recent estimates of 13 to 17% in meta-analyses of observational studies. Using UK population data of 2007, for 1,000 women invited to biennial mammography screening for 20 years from age 50, 2 to 3 women are prevented from dying of breast cancer. All-cause mortality is unchanged. Overdiagnosis of breast cancer is the main harm of mammography screening. Based on recent estimates from the United States, the relative amount of overdiagnosis (including ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive cancer) is 31%. This results in 15 women overdiagnosed for every 1,000 women invited to biennial mammography screening for 20 years from age 50. Women should be unpassionately informed about the benefits and harms of mammography screening using absolute effect sizes in a comprehensible fashion. In an era of limited health care resources, screening services need to be scrutinized and compared with each other with regard to effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and harms.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 92 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 733 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 2 <1%
United States 2 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Estonia 1 <1%
Unknown 727 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 116 16%
Student > Master 107 15%
Researcher 57 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 52 7%
Student > Postgraduate 40 5%
Other 125 17%
Unknown 236 32%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 203 28%
Nursing and Health Professions 67 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 43 6%
Engineering 25 3%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 25 3%
Other 109 15%
Unknown 261 36%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 148. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 February 2024.
All research outputs
#281,102
of 25,576,801 outputs
Outputs from Breast Cancer Research
#24
of 2,060 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,943
of 279,341 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Breast Cancer Research
#1
of 42 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,576,801 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,060 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 12.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 279,341 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 42 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.