Our data underline the need for early screening programmes as well as early treatment of co-morbidities to encounter this dramatic development.
The fall off in cancer and neoplasia detection rates follows similar patterns to other screening programmes; in the early stages of the programme, there will be a significant proportion of prevalent cancers, but, as the programme progresses, the proportion of incident cancers will increase.
In order to prevent or mitigate the increasing trend of dyslipidaemia in the future, we recommend an early screening prevention programme for high risk, overweight and obese individuals, followed by a population-based intervention programme.
At first the shift in health policy thinking focused on the introduction of disease management programmes (DMPs) and early detection screening programmes, including statutory mammographic screening.
The general health services have considerable potential to address avoidable blindness through health education, preventive treatment of important eye diseases, recognition of symptoms and early referral, screening programmes, and rehabilitation services for blind or visually impaired people [ 3, 5].
Cancer was once considered a death sentence, but earlier detection, screening programmes and medical advances mean increasing numbers of people are being diagnosed with cancer, and more people are living longer after treatment.
In the early years of the screening programme, quality assurance did not extend beyond initial diagnosis and data on subsequent management were not routinely collected.
Oncologist 2 (Area 1) You could argue that actually you could (put) more money into early diagnosis so the screening programme's doing that.
Indeed, cancer screening can effectively complement awareness and early diagnosis initiatives; a screening programme can, for example, raise awareness in the community of particular cancers and their associated symptoms.
This has often been accompanied, however, by an increase in breast cancer incidence, particularly during the early years of a screening programme, which has led to concerns about overdiagnosis, that is to say, the diagnosis of disease that, if left undetected and therefore untreated, would not become symptomatic.
