A new study found that women who received false-positive mammogram results experienced heightened anxiety. But these results didn't affect their overall willingness to have another screening after two years.

A false-positive result indicates that the person is a carrying a disease or condition when he or she doesn't actually have it. In some cases, the patient may have tested positive during the initial check-up, but resultes eventually showed up negative after follow-up evaluations. While it is good news that the results are not positive, others do not appreciate it because they had to undergo frustrating, unnecessary procedures.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 90 percent of mammogram results give false-positive results. Follow-up evaluations after the initial screening such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, and tissue sampling are carried out to fully determine whether the patient is clear of breast cancer.

Researchers from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth led by professor Anna Tosteson conducted a telephone survey on 1,226 randomly selected women who received a mix of positive and negative results. These women were participants of the Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST). Almost half, or 494, of them received false-positive results.

The survey focused on determining the anxiety levels of the women who received false-positive results and finding out whether they would still want to undergo screenings in the next two years. After tabulating the responses, analysts found that 50.6 percent of these women experienced moderate to high levels of anxiety. They rated the women's anxiety at an average of 4.6 percent higher after receiving incorrect results.

Furthermore, 25.7 percent of the participants were not discouraged by undergoing another breast cancer screening in the next two years, compared to 14.2 percent of those those who received negative results.

"Our finding of time-limited harm after false-positive screening mammograms is relevant for clinicians who counsel women on mammographic screening and for screening guideline development groups," the researchers wrote.

This study was published in the April 21 issue of the JAMA Internal Medicine.