Reliability and validity of women's recall of mammographic screening

Objective: To assess the reliability and validity of self-reported attendan ce for mammographic screening. Methods: To assess reliability of recall of attendance for a screening mamm ogram, 100 women selected at random were interviewed twice (approximately o ne week apart). To assess validity, 127 women who reported having a mammogr am within the national breast screening program (BreastScreen Australia) co nsented to having their reports verified by the national program. Results: Test-retest reliability for the question "Have you ever had a mamm ogram?" was perfect (agreement 100%, kappa 1). Validity was also high. Abou t one-quarter of women (24.4%) recalled the exact date of their last mammog ram and a further third (39.4%) correctly reported the month in which the m ammogram was done. Almost all (91.3%) women reported the mammogram date acc urately to within 12 months of the recorded date. Conclusions: These data suggest that Australian women provide reliable and valid information in relation to mammographic screening attendance. Implications: Self-reported data about attendance for mammographic screenin g are likely to provide reliable and valid estimates for research and healt h services evaluation purposes.