"Introduction

In 2024, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated its breast cancer screening (BCS) recommendation to biennial screening for women starting at age 40 years,¹ a shift from its prior guideline emphasizing individualized decision-making for women aged 40 to 49 years.² The USPSTF cited increasing breast cancer incidence among women aged 40 to 49 years and racial disparities as justifications for the change.¹ Although the updated recommendation contains no explicit language about informed decision-making, the USPSTF has elsewhere emphasized informed choice across all its recommendations.³

The media plays a key role in disseminating health information.⁴ As the 2024 BCS guideline does not reiterate the USPSTF’s broader stance on informed decision-making, a potential communication gap exists between the USPSTF’s commitment to informed decision-making and language appearing in the new guideline. We examined whether media coverage of the guideline change has covered both the new recommendation and the USPSTF’s stance on informed decision-making."