TABLE 1.

INCLUSION OF THE SIX KEY ELEMENTS IN NINE SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON ‘SCREENING’ (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

SOURCE	ASYMPTOMATIC	RISK	OFFERED	POPULATION	SYSTEMATIC	EASY/RAPID
WHO (from US Commission on Chronic Illness, 1951)[10]	x	x				x
Sackett & Holland (The Lancet, 1975)[7]	x	x		x
Morrison (Screening in Chronic Disease, 1985)[11]	x	x
Fletcher, Fletcher & Wagner (Clinical Epidemiology, 1996)[12]	x					x
Cuckle & Wald (Antenatal and Neonatal Screening, 2000)[13]	x	x			x
Grimes & Schulz (The Lancet, 2002)[14]	x	x	x
Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice (2006)[15]	x	x	x	x	x
Rothman, Greenland & Lash (Modern Epidemiology, 2008)[16]	x
UK National Screening Committee (www.nsc.nhs.uk)*	x	x	x	x	(x)

x indicates that the word in the top row is used (or implied) in the definition

(x) indicates that the term ‘public health’ is used in the definition, which is assumed here to imply the application of a test in an organized or systematic manner at a population level

^*Accessed 11 November 2014 at http://www.screening.nhs.uk/screening