Decision-Making About Screening: Individual and Policy Levels

This chapter focuses on problems and possibilities for rational decision-making about screening. Some policy and individual decisions about screening are rational, and some are not. According to the model of rational decision-making developed at the beginning of this chapter, decision-makers should first understand the scientific evidence for benefits, harms, and costs of screening in the specific situation of interest. Many decisions made about screening, on both individual and policy levels, are not rational, often because the decision-makers are ill informed or because the actual perceptions and values of those affected were not used in making the decision. It has presented a model of rational decision-making, and explored the problems and possibilities of such a model in deciding about screening. The public and individuals need alternative sources of information about screening. In conclusion, the intuitive appeal of screening sometimes makes decision-making difficult. .