BACKGROUND: In Japan, biennial mammography screening has been recommended for the early detection of breast cancer (BC) in women aged 40 years or above since 2004 by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The purpose of this study is to estimate the economic impact of BC screening on work productivity, using a new measure called the productivity-adjusted life-year (PALY). METHODS: We used a dynamic life table modeling approach to estimate the work productivity of female patients aged 40-64 years diagnosed with BC in 2019 over the year of diagnosis and the subsequent 5 years. Changes in life-years, PALYs, and gross domestic product (GDP) were assessed by changing the screening detection rate from the current (34.2%) to an ideal (100%) percentage. Each input for modeling was obtained from the most recent public database available. RESULTS: BC patients were estimated to lose 1903 in life-years, 3596 in PALYs, and US 81 million in GDP at the current screening detection rate compared with the ideal detection rate. On the other hand, the following gains are expected when the current screening detection rate was increased to 40-80%
life-years gain
168-1325, PALYs gain
317-2503, GDP gain: US 5-196 million. CONCLUSION: This study has used modeling to show that detecting BC without screening is associated with a lower work productivity and an economic and life-years loss. Encouraging BC screening may be beneficial to maintaining work productivity after diagnosis.