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9 - Screening

from Part 1 - The Public Health Toolkit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2023

By
Sue Cohen  and
Jan Yates
Edited by
Kirsteen Watson ,
Jan Yates  and
Stephen Gillam
Kirsteen Watson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Jan Yates
Affiliation:
NHS England and NHS Improvement
Stephen Gillam
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

Screening is an important preventive public health activity. This chapter:

  • provides examples of effective screening programmes;

  • considers what criteria are needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a programme;

  • describes how screening tests can be used to guide action; and

  • describes how screening programmes can be evaluated.

Keywords

Screeningfalse negativefalse positivesensitivityspecificityPPVNPVscreening programmecriteriacancerscreening testdiagnosisethicspathway
Type
Chapter
Information
Essential Public Health
Theory and Practice
 , pp. 163 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

WHO Regional Office for Europe, Screening programmes: A short guide, 2020. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330829/9789289054782-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yGoogle Scholar
Morabia, A. and Zhang, F. F., History of medical screening: From concepts to action, Postgraduate Medical Journal 80(946), 2004, 463–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, J. M. G. and Jungner, G., Principles and practice of screening for disease, Public Health Paper no. 34, Geneva, WHO, 1968.Google Scholar
International Agency for Research on Cancer, Cancer today, 2022. Available at: https://gco.iarc.fr/today/homeGoogle Scholar
UK Health Security Agency, Newborn bloodspot screening: Programme overview, 2018. Available at: www.gov.uk/guidance/newborn-blood-spot-screening-programme-overviewGoogle Scholar
Office for National Statistics, Drug use, alcohol and smoking: Smoking, drinking and drug taking in Great Britain and associated deaths and illnesses, 2020. Available at: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholandsmokingGoogle Scholar
von Wagner, C., Good, A., Wright, D. et al., Inequalities in colorectal cancer screening participation in the first round of the national screening programme in England, British Journal of Cancer 101(Suppl. 2), 2009, S60–S63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chapple, A., Ziebland, S., Hewitson, P. and McPherson, A., What affects the uptake of screening for bowel cancer using a faecal occult blood test (FOBt): A qualitative study, Social Science & Medicine 66(12), 2008, 2425–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, C., Douglas, A., Williams, L. et al., Are there ethnic and religious variations in uptake of bowel cancer screening? A retrospective cohort study among 1.7 million people in Scotland, British Medical Journal Open 10(10), 2020, 1–11.Google ScholarPubMed
Szczepura, A., Price, C. and Gumber, A., Breast and bowel cancer screening uptake patterns over 15 years for UK south Asian ethnic minority populations, corrected for differences in socio-demographic characteristics, BMC Public Health 8(1), 2008, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ashton, H. A., Buxton, M. J., Day, N. E. et al., The Multicentre Aneurysm Screening Study (MASS) into the effect of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening on mortality in men: A randomised controlled trial, The Lancet 360(9345), 2002, 1531–9.Google Scholar
Meecham, L., Jacomelli, J., Davis, M. et al., Outcomes in men from the NHS abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme with a large aneurysm referred for intervention, European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery 61(2), 2021, 192–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Orgnization, WHO position paper on mammography screening, Geneva, WHO, 2014.Google Scholar
Mandal, R. and Basu, P., Cancer screening and early diagnosis in low and middle income countries: Current situation and future perspectives, Bundesgesundheitsblatt Gesundheitsforschung Gesundheitsschutz 61(12), 2018, 1505–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cancer Research UK, Overdiagnosis: when finding cancer can do more harm than good, 2018. Available at: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2018/03/06/overdiagnosis-when-finding-cancer-can-do-more-harm-than-good/Google Scholar
UK Health Security Agency, Breast screening: Helping women decide, 2013. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/breast-screening-helping-women-decideGoogle Scholar
Edwards, A. G. K., Naik, G., Ahmed, H. et al., Personalised risk communication for informed decision making about taking screening tests, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UK National Screening Committee. Available at: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-national-screening-committeeGoogle Scholar

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