Synthetic indicator of the impact of colorectal cancer screening programmes on incidence rates

ObjectiveThe impact of a screening programme on colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence in its target population depends on several variables, including coverage with invitations, participation rate, positivity rate of the screening test, compliance with an invitation to second-level assessment and endoscopists’ sensitivity. We propose a synthetic indicator that may account for all the variables influencing the potential impact of a screening programme on CRC incidence.DesignWe defined the ‘rate of advanced adenoma on the target population’ (AA-TAP) as the rate of patients who received a diagnosis of advanced adenoma within a screening programme, divided by the programme target population. We com…