Physician perspectives regarding over‐screening for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers in older adults

Older adults with limited life expectancies are more likely to be harmed than to benefit from routine screening for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers, but national screening rates among these patients remain high.1, 2 Physician recommendation has been shown to be a contributor to over-screening, but why physicians over-screen older adults is not well understood.3, 4 We previously reported that 39% of physicians in a national survey did not believe over-screening was a significant problem in older adults.5 In the current article, we explore physician characteristics associated with this belief.