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Costs and benefits of cervical screening. II. Is it worthwhile reducing the screening interval from 5 to 3 years?
Author(s) -
WAUGH N.,
ROBERTSON A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1365-2303
pISSN - 0956-5507
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2303.1996.40082400.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cost–benefit analysis , interval (graph theory) , health benefits , cost benefit , cost effectiveness , risk analysis (engineering) , ecology , mathematics , combinatorics , biology , traditional medicine
A reduction in screening interval from 5 years to 3 years would greatly increase the cost of the programme, but would save few extra lives. The cost per life saved would be around £250 000 at 1995 prices, or around £8000 per life per year saved. There would in addition be human costs for the women screened. The opportunity cost of reducing the interval may be too great, since it is likely that the Health Service would achieve greater health benefits by investing the funds in other health care activities.