Accuracy of self-reported cervical and breast cancer screening by women with intellectual disability.

Son et al. (2013) asked women with intellectual disability if they had ever had a Pap test or mammogram. Then the team checked each woman's medical record to see what really happened.

They wanted to know: when these women say "yes, I got screened," can we trust the answer?

Almost every woman who truly had a test said "yes." But many women who never had a test also said "yes." Their self-reports caught the true cases but created lots of false positives.

In plain words, the women were honest when they did get screened, but they also over-reported. You cannot rely on interview answers alone.

Lin et al. (2011) ran a similar check with women who have physical disabilities. Same method: ask, then check records. Both studies show self-report inflates real screening rates, so the problem is not unique to ID.

Gregory et al. (2001) surveyed older women with ID living in group homes and found two-thirds were not getting breast screening at all. Taken together, the 2001 and 2013 papers tell a clear story: many women with ID miss out on care, and if you just ask them you will still over-estimate how many are up-to-date.

Lim et al. (2016) narrowed the lens to pregnant women with IDD. Even this high-need group had lower cervical screening rates than other pregnant women. The accuracy problem Esther found makes those gaps harder to spot without chart checks.

Before you write a goal about health screenings in an ISP, pull the actual medical record. A client's verbal "yes" is only the first step. Use the record to confirm dates, then teach the client what the test is called and why it matters. This simple chart check saves you from basing plans on rosy data and keeps preventive care on track.