Anxiety, Confusion Reported After Notification About Dense Breasts

TUESDAY, Dec. 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Women who are notified about having dense breasts after mammography report being more anxious and confused, according to a study published online Dec. 3 in the European Heart Journal.

Brooke Nickel, Ph.D., from The University of Sydney, and colleagues examined the effect of notifying women of their dense breasts on their psychosocial outcomes in a multisite parallel arm randomized controlled trial. Participants were women aged 40 years and older undergoing screening and classified as having mammographically dense breasts; they were randomly allocated equally to standard care (no notification of dense breasts), notification plus written health literacy sensitive information (intervention 1), or notification plus a link to online video-based health literacy sensitive information (intervention 2; 802, 776, and 823 women, respectively, were included in the analysis).

The researchers found that women who were notified of their dense breasts reported feeling significantly more anxious (odds ratios, 1.30 and 1.28 for interventions 1 and 2, respectively) and confused (odds ratios, 1.92 and 1.76 for interventions 1 and 2, respectively) compared with controls, and they expressed significantly increased intentions to talk to their general practitioner about their screening results (relative risk ratios, 2.08 and 1.71 for interventions 1 and 2, respectively) and to rely on their general practitioner for supplemental screening advice (relative risk ratios, 2.61 and 2.29 for interventions 1 and 2, respectively). Most women did not intend to undergo supplemental screening (78.9, 81.4, and 91.3 percent for intervention 1, intervention 2, and control, respectively). Notified women did not report feeling more informed.

“Findings highlight that the utility of implementing population breast density notification should be carefully considered owing to potential adverse outcomes,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text