title: The effect of false positive breast screening examinations on subsequent attendance: retrospective cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of false positive breast screening examination results on subsequent attendance in the UK National Health Service Breast Screening Programme.
  
  
  METHODS
  253,017 previously screened women who were invited for rescreening were studied. Attendance rates of women who had received a normal result at the last (index) screen were compared with those of women who had received a false positive result. The effects of age, type of index screening examination (prevalent or incident) and tissue sampling at assessment were investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women who had a false positive prevalent index screening examination were significantly more likely to reattend than those who had a normal prevalent index screening examination (87.7% vs. 86.0%). There was no significant difference in reattendance rates between women who had a false positive incident index screening examination and those with a normal incident index screening examination. However, women who underwent needle sampling or open biopsy following false positive incident index screening examinations were 12% and 60% less likely to reattend, respectively, than women whose index screening examinations were normal (p < 0.001), although there was variation between centres. Increasing age significantly reduced the likelihood of reattendance. The overall reattendance of women who had been screened only once was six percentage points lower than that of women who had been screened more than once.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that most women who undergo the breast screening assessment process retain confidence in breast screening. Needle sampling and open biopsy should be used judiciously in the assessment of screen-detected abnormalities in view of the reduced reattendance that results from their use after incident screening examinations.
authors.affiliation: Consultant radiologist, Breast Unit, Royal Bolton Hospital, Bolton, UK (Current address: The Nightingale Centre and Genesis Prevention Centre, University Hospital of South Manchester, Wythenshawe, Manchester, M23 9LT, UK).
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Cathryn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beattie
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lavelle
authors.forename: Iain
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lyburn
authors.forename: Ruchi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinnatamby
authors.forename: Shelagh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garnett
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herbert
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies