Definition

The definition of population screening, as laid down in the Population Screening Act (Wet op het bevolkingsonderzoek, Wbo, in Dutch), is: ‘medical research in persons carried out on an entire population or a category thereof aimed at the detection of certain types of disease or certain risk indicators for the benefit of the participating subjects’ (non-official translation). This definition contains a number of elements:

• It must concern a medical research within the population screening;
• The research must be carried out in the entire population, or a category thereof, that is it concerns screening. The investigator must be presented to the population or the population group through, for example, individual consultations, advertisements or other general communication, such as in the waiting room of the practice of the investigator;
• The screening should partly take place for the benefit of the participants, so that the individual results of the research can be offered to every participant as a health care benefit. With ‘partly’ is meant that the research can possibly also be a ‘trial population research’ and may have a medical/scientific character;
• The term ‘disease’ is defined in the wider sense to include disorders, pain, injuries, deficiencies, or other physical or psychological conditions;
• Risk indicators are seen to be ‘information on an individual containing details concerning the level of risk to that individual defined within a set time period and clinical manifestation. These increase the chance of contracting certain diseases’ (non-official translation).