Medical screening： to be or not to be

• Published in: Chinese medical journal Vol. 123; no. 14; pp. 1948 - 1951
• Main Authors: Wang, Wei-Zhong, Tang, Jin-Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: China Department of Administration and Logistics Management, Institute of Pathogen Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China%Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China 01.07.2010
• Subjects: Female; Humans; Mass Screening - adverse effects; Mass Screening - economics; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnosis; Vaginal Smears - adverse effects; Vaginal Smears - economics; 健康检查; 医疗检查; 并发症; 慢性疾病; 早期治疗; 风险因素; benefits; harms; medical screening; cost
• ISSN: 0366-6999; 2542-5641
• DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.0366-6999.2010.14.022

WHAT IS MEDICAL SCREENING？ Worldwide chronic diseases have become a major cause of suffering, disability and mortality. When patients are diagnosed as a result of the appearance of symptoms, it is often too late and treatment options are limited. Hoping that early diagnosis and early treatment can retard or stop disease progression, medical screening is proposed as a secondary prevention method in which people without specific medical complaints are invited to undergo interventions to identify and modify risk factors, or to find disease early in its course so that early treatment prevents further severe complications.