Is Mammography Screening an Effective Public Health Intervention? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Publicly-funded population-based screening programmes can help improve clinical outcomes, alleviate health inequalities, and reduce healthcare costs. However, many of the benefits and harms of screening can only be observed at a population level and only over a long enough timeframe for the cascade of events triggered by screening to culminate in disease-specific mortality reductions. In this paper we exploit a natural experiment resulting from the phased implementation of the Irish national mammography screening programme to examine the impact of screening on breast cancer outcomes from both a health service and a population perspective. We conclude that although the programme produced the intended short-term intermediate effects of screening and improved outcomes from a service-level perspective, these failed to translate into reductions in overall breast cancer mortality at a population level or result in decreases in socioeconomic disparities in breast cancer outcomes.

This is one of a series of seminars in the Whitaker Ideas Forum. John will be representing the Population and Migration research cluster.

The Whitaker Ideas Forum is a weekly seminar, running Wednesday’s throughout the semester from 1:00pm-2:00pm in CA110. It provides the opportunity for members of the Institute to showcase their research. The result are presentations that highlight the diversity of the research being undertaken, while allowing for an opportunity to engage in discussions and, sometimes, collaboration with attendees. Below, you will find a list of this semesters seminars. Please click on the title for more information on that seminar.