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Do as I Do, Not as I Say
Electra D. Paskett, PhD
Arch Fam Med. 1997;6(6):549-550.
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Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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THE ARTICLE by Saver et al1 reports findings from a study in which family and general practitioner reports of mammography ordering behavior were correlated with medical record data on actual mammography performance. The results suggest that physicians were not ordering mammograms as they reported. These findings have important implications for the measurement of mammography use and efforts to improve physician behavior in increasing the rate of ordering mammograms.
Measurements of mammography use are important for policy recommendations and allocating resources for intervention efforts. If rates are artificially inflated by self-report, estimates of use will not reflect true use and messages to increase use will be softened. This is especially critical in relation to physicians. For example, many research studies in the past have reported that the most compelling reason women obtain screening mammograms is because their physician recommended one.2 Thus, the "mammography message" is actually being disseminated
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
Author Affiliations
Bowman Gray School of Medicine Winston-Salem, NC
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