• Overview
• Definition
• Health consequences
• Costs
• Contributors

Definition

Screening is a public health service in which members of a defined population who do not necessarily perceive they are at risk of, or are already affected by, a disease or complications are asked a question or offered a test to identify those who are more likely to be helped than harmed by further tests or treatments. This aims to reduce the risk of a disease or its complications. ¹

There are several other definitions of screening, ^{2 3 4} but the UK National Screening Committee definition above is the only one which states that screening is a public health service and that the benefits of screening should outweigh the harms.

Different approaches to screening

There are two main approaches to screening a population: the opportunistic approach or the proactive approach.

Opportunistic approach

An example of an opportunistic approach is offering a blood pressure monitoring test, which is a routine part of many consultations with general practitioners (GPs).

Proactive approach

A proactive approach involves screening an identified at-risk group, such as pregnant women for Down’s syndrome.

Proactive screening is taken a stage further in a national screening programme such as the NHS Breast Screening Programme, where all healthy women aged 50-70 years, registered with GPs in an area, are systematically invited for screening once every three years.