Recommending organized screening programs for adults in Greece: a Delphi consensus study

In the absence of organized screening programs in Greece, the aim of this study is to propose a set of programs, which exhibit potential to improve health system's performance.

A literature review was conducted to identify those programs fulfilling certain screening evaluation criteria. Using Delphi method programs identified were evaluated by a multi-professional expert panel who were asked to provide their consent and recommendations for the implementation, target-group, rescreening interval, primary screening method and social insurance reimbursement level. Kuder-Richardson 20 and Cronbach's α were used for assessing internal consistency and number of rounds.

The majority of experts supported the introduction of organized screening programs for breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, abdominal aortic aneurysm and vascular risk assessment. Major disagreements arose on the target-group of the colorectal cancer and abdominal aortic aneurysm program concerning age-limits. Experts argued that only those fulfilling programs' eligibility criteria or those referred should be reimbursed by social insurance.

Recommended screening programs provide for the first time a comprehensive and consensus based proposal for the secondary prevention policy of the country. They are expected to contribute to the reduction of the disease burden from important health problems and to the optimum allocation of resources invested in health.