title: Estimating the cost effectiveness of screening tests.
abstract: A number of criteria have been postulated that a screening test should fulfill in order for it to be a good or worthwhile screening tool. However, it is a rare test which fulfills all the criteria that have been thought to be important. Therefore, there always exists some form of trade-off between, for example, the detection rate and the false-positive rate and cost. It is the magnitude and form of these trade-offs, which differ for each screening test, that are important, not whether a test fulfills some arbitrary set of criteria. In this paper, we describe some of the trade-offs which occur when appraising a screening test and we argue that listing arbitrary criteria is an unhelpful activity.
authors.affiliation: National Primary Care Research & Development Centre, University of York, York, USA.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Torgerson
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Reid
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D006113:United Kingdom