Overscreening is problematic because it can lead to risky or harmful additional treatment when a healthy person gets a false positive result for screening which they should not have had.
[1] There can be debate about when risk becomes great enough to become significant and merit a recommendation for screening, but in discussions about overscreening, this is not the cause of the problem.
[6] Over time, the indicators for making a diagnosis are lower so that people with fewer symptoms are diagnosed with a disease sooner.
[6] Causes for patients requesting treatment include increased access to health information on the Internet and direct-to-consumer advertising.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology recommends screening be discouraged in those who are expected to live less than ten years, while in those with a life expectancy of greater than ten years a decision should be made by the person in question based on the potential risks and benefits.
Some other organizations recommend mammograms begin as early as age 40 in normal-risk women, and take place more frequently, up to once each year.
Electrocardiograms are sometimes inappropriately used to screen low-risk patients with no symptoms for cardiac disease, perhaps as part of a routine annual exam.
[18] False positive results, however, are likely to lead to follow-up invasive procedures, unnecessary further treatment, and a misdiagnosis.
[18] Young athletes are sometimes screened with ECG as a requirement for them to play sports, and the necessity of this and harms from false positive results are debated.
[21] Coronary artery calcium scoring is a diagnostic test in the field of cardiovascular x-ray computed tomography.
Asymptomatic people who have low risk, including a lack of family history of premature coronary artery disease, should not be screened with this test.
Additionally, this test rarely provides insight which cannot be gained from coronary artery calcium scoring.