A Consultant Pathologist at the University College Hospital, (UCH) Ibadan, Prof. Femi Ogunbiyi, said on Tuesday that early health screening would reduce adult mortality in the country.
Ogunbiyi made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ibadan.
He defined screening as “an examination or testing of a group of individuals to separate those who are well from those who have an undiagnosed disease or defect”.
The consultant pathologist said that screening included individuals with presymptomatic or unrecognised symptomatic disease.
According to him, the goal of screening tests was for early detection and lifestyles changes is to reduce the risk of diseases or to detect it early enough to treat it most effectively.
“The objective of medical screening is to identify a disease in its pre-clinical stage and, therefore, hopefully still curable phase.
“Screening tests are somewhat unique in that they are performed on persons apparently in good health.
“Screening interventions are designed to identify diseases in a community early; thus enabling earlier intervention and management, to reduce mortality and suffering from a disease,” he said.
Ogunbiyi said that although some screening might lead to an earlier diagnosis, adding that not all screening had been shown to benefit the person being screened.
He said that over-diagnosis, misdiagnosis and creating a false sense of security are some potential adverse effects of screening.
The consultant said that a test used in a screening programme especially for diseases with low incidence, must have good sensitivity in addition to acceptable specificity.
He said that there were several types of screening but the most common were: the universal and case finding types.
“Universal screening involves screening of individuals in a certain category (for example all children of a certain age).”
“There is also the `case finding screening’, which involves a smaller group of people based on the presence of risk factors, either in the family or by heredity.
“Screening interventions are not designed to be diagnostic and often have significant rates of both false positive and false negative results’’, he said.
Ogunbiyi said common screening programmes included: cancer screening, pap smear or liquid-based cytology to detect potentially precancerous lesions and prevent cervical cancer.
Some others are: mammography to detect breast cancer, colonoscopy and fecal occult blood test to detect colorectal cancer.
Other examples are (Purified Protein Derivative) PPD test to screen for exposure of tuberculosis and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to screen for depression.
Ogunbiyi advised all teenagers and adult females from 18 years and above to go for periodical screening, adding that this would help in early detection and avoid spread of deadly diseases.
He said that adult mortality would in the long run be reduced in the country.
