Screening for mild hypertension: costs and benefits.
It is important to understand the full implications of introducing a new screening and treatment programme into the National Health Service. In this paper, we calculate, for mild hypertension, the cost of community-based screening and the cost of case-finding in general practice. We show that case-finding in general practice is both less expensive and more efficient. We calculate the cost of running a programme in general practice for five years and divide that cost by an estimate of the number of deaths that might be prevented as a result of introducing such a programme. This calculation give a minimum cost for extending a life by the programme.
D000328:Adult; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D006113:United Kingdom