The influence of breast density and key demographics of radiographers on mammography reporting performance – a pilot study

• Published in: Journal of medical radiation sciences 2022-03, Vol.69 (1), p.30-36
• Main Authors: Alakhras, Maram, Al‐Mousa, Dana S., Alqadi, Alaa K., Sabaneh, Haneen A., Karasneh, Ruba M., Spuur, Kelly M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breast; Breast cancer; Breast Density; Breast Neoplasms; Data analysis; Demography; Female; Females; Humans; Mammography; Mammography - methods; Mortality; Original; Pilot Projects; Radiography; reporting; screening; Sociodemographics; Workloads
• ISSN: 2051-3895; 2051-3909; 2051-3909
• DOI: 10.1002/jmrs.486

Introduction A high demand has been placed on radiologists to perform screen reads due to higher number of women undergoing mammography. This study aims to examine radiographer performance in reporting low compared with high‐mammographic density (MD) images; and to assess the influence of key demographics of Jordanian radiographers on their performance. Methods Thirty mammograms with varied MD were reported by 12 radiographers using the Breast Imaging‐Reporting and Data System (BI‐RADS). Radiographer performance was measured using sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC). Performance measures were compared between cases with low‐ and high‐MD and between subgroups of radiographers according to key demographics. Results All performance measures were significantly higher in low‐ compared to high‐MD cases (P value