The Negative Impact of the New Coronavirus Pandemic on the Trend of Breast Biopsies and Their Direct Costs: Interrupted Time Series Analysis

The overload of health services because of the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the population’s access to treatment and prevention of other diseases. This study aimed to identify whether there was a change in the trend of breast biopsies and their direct costs during the COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country’s public and universal healthcare system. This was an ecological time series study of mammograms and breast biopsies in women aged 30 years or older from an open-access data set of the Public Health System of Brazil from 2017 to July 2021. In 2020, there was a reduction of −40.9% in mammograms and −7.9% in breast biopsies compared with the prepandemic period. From 2017 to 2020, there was an increase in the breast biopsies ratio per mammogram (1.37%-2.55%), the percentage of Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) IV and V mammograms (0.79%-1.14%), and the annual direct cost of breast biopsies (Brazilian Real 3 477 410.00 to Brazilian Real 7 334 910.00). In the time series, the negative impact of the pandemic was lower on BI-RADS IV to V mammograms than on BI-RADS 0 to III. There was an association between the trend of breast biopsies and BI-RADS IV to V mammography. The COVID-19 pandemic harmed the increasing trend of breast biopsies, their total direct costs, BI-RADS 0 to III and IV to V mammograms, observed in the prepandemic period. Furthermore, there was a tendency to screen women at a higher risk for breast cancer during the pandemic. •The COVID-19 pandemic has overloaded healthcare services and impaired the population’s access to treatment and prevention of other diseases.•The COVID-19 pandemic harmed the increasing trend of breast biopsies, their total direct costs, and BI-RADS (Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System) 0 to III and IV to V mammograms, observed in the prepandemic period. During the pandemic, there was a greater tendency to screen women at a higher risk for breast cancer.•There is a need to intensify strategies to promote early breast cancer diagnosis during the pandemic to reduce costs with advanced disease treatment and mortality.