Assessing psychosocial/quality of life outcomes in screening: how do we do it better?

This article presents information related to the psychosocial outcomes of screening programs. Assessing non-medical outcomes of screening presents constant challenges. T.M. Marteau and colleagues offer some insight into the complexities of assessing non-medical outcomes in their study of abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. The paper reports that sell assessed health was lower among men who were found to have an aortic aneurysm than men who did not, yet baseline measurement indicated that much of this difference pre-dated screening. Adequate assessment of psychosocial as well as medical outcomes, is crucially important, especially given the potential of screening to detect inconsequential disease.