A survey found that more than two-thirds of people believe mammograms should begin before the age of 50, contrary to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines.
USPSTF calls for biennial mammograms beginning at age 50, but 67% of consumers disagreed with this approach in a survey by healthcare technology company HealthMine. Another 52% of all respondents said biennial testing is not often enough.
Among female respondents, 73% said that mammograms should start before age 50. Another 60% of the women surveyed said that biennial mammograms are not frequent enough.
The HealthMine survey included 501 consumers enrolled in a 2016 health plan and was fielded by Survey Sampling International (SSI) in January 2016. Data were collected via an opt-in panel.













![A normal mammogram confirmed by three-year radiologic follow-up illustrates reader-marked regions of interest (ROIs) during (A) unaided (round 1) and (B) artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted (round 2) reading. Each colored dot represents an ROI for recall by a human reader. Readers could mark more than one ROI per case, represented by multiple dots of the same color. During AI-assisted reading, the AI system displayed three visible prompts: two with suspicion of malignancy scores of 35% (left mediolateral oblique [L MLO] and craniocaudal [L CC]) and one with a suspicion of malignancy score of 10% (right craniocaudal [R CC]), shown as polygonal overlays. Without AI, six of 10 readers (60%) marked a false-positive ROI. With AI assistance, this fell to two of 10 (20%). R MLO = right mediolateral oblique.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/07/2026-07-14-radiology-mammogram-ai-auto-bias.H0bYO8QlWs.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=112&q=70&w=112)





