Mammograms and Other Trivial Matters

Wow!! What an uproar. Such ghastly information: Don't get a mammogram until age 50 and then do it every two years. Why is everyone so upset? That inormation has been out since March of this year. Doesn't anyone do any research anymore? I'm a retired accounting teacher and I new what was recommended months ago. Check out the colonoscopy screening recommendation.

The USPSTF seems to be a funtion of the AHRQ. Here is how they describe themselves in the back pages of the AHRQ website:

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), first convened by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1984, and since 1998 sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is the leading independent panel of private-sector experts in prevention and primary care. The USPSTF conducts rigorous, impartial assessments of the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of a broad range of clinical preventive services, including screening, counseling, and preventive medications. Its recommendations are considered the "gold standard" for clinical preventive services.
The mission of the USPSTF is to evaluate the benefits of individual services based on age, gender, and risk factors for disease; make recommendations about which preventive services should be incorporated routinely into primary medical care and for which populations; and identify a research agenda for clinical preventive care.

The website indicates that it is part of the Dept. of HHS. On page ii of the "Guide to Clinical Preventive Services - Recommendations of the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force," it states that these recommendations are independent of the U. S. Government.

It gets its money from the government and is part of AHRQ which is part of Dept HHS, but it is independent.

So what are these recommendations? Can you say "cost-effective?" Here's a small part of what it says about colonoscopies:

"Despite the increasing incidence of colorectal adenomas with age, for individuals previously screened the gain in life-years associated with extending screening from age 75 years to 85 years was small in comparison to the risks of screening people in this decade." In other words, if we test, find something, and operate, you will probably end up living the same number of years as if we had done nothing. And how about this:

"For persons older than 85 years, competing causes of mortality preclude a mortality benefit that outweighs the harms." Hon, don't bother testing. You're going to die anyway.

To be continued....