Screening In Healthcare Services Flashcards
What is screening?
This is the reasonable identification of unrecognized diseases in an apparently healthy, asymptomatic individual.
Screening test is used to identify people who require further investigation to determine the presence or absence of disease.
In simple terms, It is just a search for unrecognized disease in apparently healthy persons or individuals
How is screeining done?
It is done by means of tests, experiments, inspections or other trials that can be applied rapidly and easily to the target population.
The process of screening begins with inviting individuals to participate in the screening process and ends with providing appropriate treatment to appropriately identified individuals.
How is screening different from Periodic Health Examination?
Screening differs from periodic health examination on the following basis:
1. Screening is capable of wide application
2. It is relatively inexpensive
3. Screening requires little physician time and effort
What is the objective of screening?
To identify early evidence of an abnormality or abnormalities in an individual
To recommend preventive strategies and treatment to an individual for better health outcomes
What are the requirements for a screening test?
- acceptable to the population
- reasonably inexpensive
- safe
- able to discriminate between disease and non-disease population
Explain the principles of screening
The disease to be screened should fulfill the following criteria before it is considered for screening.
They are:
1. The condition should be an important public health problem in terms of its frequency and severity.
2. There should be a recognizable latent or early symptomatic stage
3. The natural history of the condition/disease should be adequately understood
4. There should be a recognizable latent or asymptomatic stage
5. There should be an accepted treatment for patients with recognized disease
6. There should be a test that can identify the disease prior to the onset of sign and symptoms
7. There should be an agreed policy on whom to treat as patients. E.g.: borderline of diabetes
8. Facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available.
9. There should be good evidence that early detection and treatment reduces the morbidity and mortality from disease.
10. The cost of screening (including diagnosis and treatment of patients diagnosed) should be economically balanced in relation to possible expenditure on medical care as a whole
11. Screening should be a continuing process and not a ‘once and for all’ project.
12. The expected benefits (e.g. number of life saved) of early detection exceeds the risk and cost
What are criteria for effective screening programmes?
Effective screening programmes must meet the following criteria:
1. Mechanisms for systematic invitation and follow-up for individuals identified by the screening test as having an abnormal finding (call and recall mechanisms)
2. Participation of over 70% of the target population to be screened
3. Necessary infrastructure and resources to offer the test periodically and to adequately diagnose and treat those found to have cancer or a precancerous lesion
4. Robust monitoring and evaluation framework to assure quality
What are the possible complications of screening tests?
Every single screening test can be risky as well.
For instance, x-ray investigations exposes the body to radioactive particles, and endoscopy of the bowel can result in blood loss or (in rare cases) severe damages
Therefore, it is essential that both the welfare and problems of a screening test should be evaluated in studies before presenting it at an enormous scale.
That way, investigators can discover whether the aids of the screening test be greater than the hazards
List the types of screening
Mass screening
Selective Screening
Multiple (or multiphasic) screening
Opportunistic screening
What is mass screening?
This is a term used to specify the extensive screening of entire population sets.
It used it to denote to the screening wherever there is no selection of population sets is prepared
What is selective screening?
This term is used for the screening of chosen high-risk groups in the population.
It may perhaps still be large-scale, and be able to consider as one and only form of population screening
What is multiphasic screening?
It has been well defined as the practice of dual or additional screening tests in the mixture to large clusters of individuals
What is opportunistic screening?
An opportunistic screening is a screening type that someone undergoes without planning for it.
For example, a client visits a health facility for a specific cause and, whereas they are offered a supplementary test, for example, blood pressure measurement
What are the advantages of screening?
Screening tests are safe and relatively cheaper compared to the general test or examination.
It helps to identify diseases at an initial phase before any symptoms become visible
The medical tests used for screening resolutions are regularly not suitable for making a concluding analysis. As a substitute, several tests are used to identify any oddities first, which are then viewed at more thoroughly in further assessments.
It is always beneficial for early diagnosis and treatment of disease
What are the limitations of screening?
Screening of certain diseases like cervical screening will not inhibit all circumstances of cervical cancer.
In some diseases like cervical cancer, certain women will still progress cervical cancer in spite of consistent screening.
Certain abnormal cell fluctuations might be neglected.
Screening will not discover each anomalous cell alteration
Screening test can sometimes be detrimental as well, if enough precautionary measures are not taken
It is less accurate.
Screening is not the base for treatment.
Screening program can only be measured a “preventive” measure if it targets to define and affect threats
