SCREENING

Screening a population means looking for a disease in the people which may not be clinically obvious (i.e. the subjects look well). To make screening cost-effective, a certain part of the population (known to be at higher risk of the condition) is usually selected.

The principles of screening are:

  1. The condition should be:
bulletcommon
bulletimportant
bulletdiagnosed by an acceptable method
  1. There should be enough time after diagnosis for effective treatment to be carried out.
  2. Screening should be:
bulletcost-effective
bulletcontinuous
bulleton a group agreed to be at high risk

The test used for screening should have the following attributes:

bulletbe accurate
bulletsafe
bulletnon-invasive
bulletacceptable to the patient
bulleteasy to interpret

 

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Mr. H.S. Khaira  MD, FRCS.
Copyright © 2001  [H.S. Khaira]. All rights reserved.
Revised: October 24, 2004 .