Journal of medical screening
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Newborn hearing screening has been recognized as an essential component of public health care in early childhood in developed countries. However, such screening is yet to be widely embraced in the developing world. The new national health policy in Nigeria seeks, for the first time, to reduce the impact of permanent hearing loss on early childhood development through early detection and timely intervention services. ⋯ Amplification with hearing aids is an effective and preferred option for early intervention by parents. The risk of maternal anxiety from potential false-positives or the psychological cost of false assurance from false-negatives is unlikely to outweigh the benefit of screening. Newborn hearing screening is therefore a potential early detection strategy for permanent childhood hearing loss in Nigeria.
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To determine the relationship between the number of initial negative Pap smears and risk of subsequent cervical cancer. ⋯ Multiple consecutive negative cytology was not associated with reduced risk of invasive cervical cancer in women with no history of cytological abnormality.
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To compare the performance of screening mammography in the USA and the UK, a consecutive sample of screening mammograms was obtained in women aged 50 and older from 1996 to 1999 who participated in the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium in the USA (n = 978,591) and the National Health Service Breast Cancer Screening Program in the UK (n = 3.94 million), including 6943 diagnosed with breast cancer within 12 months of screening. Recall rates were defined as the percentage of screening mammograms with a recommendation for further evaluation including diagnostic mammography, ultrasound, clinical examination or biopsy, and cancer detection rates including invasive cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ diagnosed within 12 months of a screening mammogram. All results were stratified by whether examinations were first or subsequent and adjusted to a standard age distribution. ⋯ Recall rates are approximately two to three times higher in the USA than in the UK. Importantly, despite less frequent screening in the USA, there are no substantial differences in the rates of detection of large cancers. Efforts to improve mammographic screening in the USA should target lowering the recall rate without reducing the cancer detection rate.