What are the factors that keep people who won’t benefit from health screenings going? Elizabeth Tracey reports
Update: 2025-09-12
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Even when people know they can discontinue health screenings for things like cancer they often continue the practice. Nancy Schoenborn, a geriatrics expert at Johns Hopkins who studies such behaviors, says recent research on older women and breast cancer screenings has some revelations.
Schoenborn: Older women who are older than the age cutoff we have and have limited life expectancy, so people who meet multiple guideline criteria and really should think carefully if that's what they want to do, continuous screening, many of them still get screened. There's a lot of drivers for this. That could be inertia, could be routine, people may not be aware that they have the option or permission to stop at some point. They didn't know that they have the choice, they may not understand why should anyone stop. :31
Schoenborn says crafting sensitive messaging that doesn’t dismiss health concerns of older adults is foundational, and notes that screening does have potential harms as well as benefits. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
Schoenborn: Older women who are older than the age cutoff we have and have limited life expectancy, so people who meet multiple guideline criteria and really should think carefully if that's what they want to do, continuous screening, many of them still get screened. There's a lot of drivers for this. That could be inertia, could be routine, people may not be aware that they have the option or permission to stop at some point. They didn't know that they have the choice, they may not understand why should anyone stop. :31
Schoenborn says crafting sensitive messaging that doesn’t dismiss health concerns of older adults is foundational, and notes that screening does have potential harms as well as benefits. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
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