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Screening refers to the process of surveying a population or sample of a population, in the attempt to identify people at risk for or with a given health condition. Screening is a crucial part of epidemiology, as it informs about the prevalence and risk factors of various health conditions in a population. Furthermore, screening is crucial for preventive medicine, since it enables to identify people who may benefit from primary, secondary, or tertiary interventions. Screening for primary prevention reflects identifying people without a risk factor (e.g., hypertension, depression), to prevent the risk factor and subsequent illnesses. Screening for secondary prevention could be among people with a risk factor, to prevent an illness. And screening for tertiary prevention would be done to prevent relapse or mortality in people already ill (e.g., after a first myocardial infarction). Screening could be in relation to psychosocial factors such as hostility...
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References and Further Readings
Wald, N. J., & Morris, J. K. (2011). Assessing risk factors as potential screening tests. A simple assessment tool. Archives of Internal Medicine, 171, 286–291.
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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Gidron, Y. (2016). Screening. In: Gellman, M., Turner, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_143-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_143-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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