After plummeting during the first COVID-19 wave in April 2020, the breast cancer screening rate for White women recovered by June 2020, with the rate for Black women on a slightly slower pace, according to a review of 14 million medical records.
Asian, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native women did not experience a rebound in screening rates until September 2020.
“What’s worrisome is that the combined two-year lag in screenings we are reporting will translate into not only more and more severe breast cancer cases, but that the cancer health disparities we already knew existed have remained stubbornly unmoved,” said study leader Debra Patt, MD, (above).
- See “Racial Disparities in Breast Cancer Screening Persist During Coronavirus Pandemic” by Christopher Cheney on the Health Leaders Media website (March 22, 2022)
- See the full text of the scientific paper “Considerations to Increase Rates of Breast Cancer Screening Across Populations” by Debra Patt, MD, et al.
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