Original articleSystematic skin cancer screening in Northern Germany
Section snippets
The SCREEN project
The project was carried out between July 2003 and June 2004 in Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany. Of 2.8 million inhabitants, 1.88 million met the eligibility criteria: resident of Schleswig-Holstein, age 20 years or older, and policyholder of statutory health insurance, which applies to approximately 85% of the German population. People receiving skin cancer aftercare or active treatment were excluded.
The project did not require ethical approval as skin cancer screening
The SCREEN project
High participation rates of the practice-based physicians were achieved, with 116 of 118 dermatologists (98%) and 1673 of 2614 eligible nondermatologists (64%) taking part in the SCREEN project. A total of 360,288 inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein were examined during the 1-year screening period. Table I and Fig 1 provide an overview of the results of the project. The male to female ratio was 1:3. In all, 278,741 (77.4%) participants chose pathway A (step 1: nondermatologist) of whom 26.4% were
Discussion
The SCREEN project is the world’s largest systematic population-based skin cancer screening program. One aim of our project was to investigate the feasibility of a systematic population-based skin cancer screening intervention. With 98% of dermatologists and almost two thirds of nondermatologists attending the 1-day training course, participation rates suggest high acceptance of skin cancer screening (ie, whole-body examination) among physicians.
An ad hoc participation of the population of 19%
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Supported by German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe e. V.), the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung), and the head associations of health insurance funds (Spitzenverbände der Krankenkassen).
Conflicts of interest: None declared.