| | Important Facts |
| (1) | Health: health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. |
| (2) | Epidemic: epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. |
| (3) | Criteria needed to be eligible for an effective screening program [20]: |
| (1) | The condition sought should be an important health problem. |
| (2) | There should be an accepted treatment for patients with recognized diseases. |
| (3) | Facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available. |
| (4) | There should be a suitable test or examination. |
| (5) | The test should be acceptable to the population. |
| (6) | The natural history of the condition, including development from latent to declared disease, should be adequately understood. |
| (7) | There should be an agreed policy on whom to treat as patients. |
| (8) | The cost of case-finding should be economically balanced in relation to possible expenditure on medical care as a whole. |
| (9) | Case-finding should be a continuing process, not a “once and for all” project. |
| | Obesity fits the above criteria so that an effective screening program can be devised and implemented across the population, including children. |
| | # A. Sagan, D. McDaid, S. Rajan, J. Farrington, and M. McKee, Screening: When is it appropriate and how can we get it right? European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, 2020. |
