Problem
Unnecessary health system referrals
Other Names:
Dubious medical testsUnnecessary health tests
Medical overservicing
Disease creep
Over-medicalization
Overdiagnosis
Over-pathologizing
Incidence:
An Australian study (2020) compared how the lifetime risk of five cancers had changed between 1982 and 2012. It found that people are increasingly being diagnosed with cancers that will do them no harm if left undetected or untreated, exposing them to unnecessary surgeries and chemotherapy. The figures suggest that in 2012, 24 per cent of cancers or carcinomas in men were overdiagnosed. These included 42 per cent of prostate cancers, 42 per cent of renal cancers, 73 per cent of thyroid cancers and 58 per cent of melanomas. For women, 18 per cent of cancers or carcinomas were overdiagnosed, including 22 per cent of breast cancers, 58 per cent of renal cancers, 73 per cent of thyroid cancers and 58 per cent of melanomas.
Narrower Problems:
Overprescription of drugsMedical treatment for non-medical conditionsFraudulent medical referrals Related Problems:
Unnecessary surgery Reduces:
Prohibitive cost of insurance Strategies:
Insuring health Subject(s):
→ SystemsHealth Care → Health
Information → Reference
Medicine → Medicine
Research, Standards → Inspection, tests
Societal Problems → Crime
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
E: Emanations of other problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST