Economic aspects of screening for cervical cancer in New Zealand.

The allocation of scarce health resources to cervical screening indicates that an implicit valuation is being placed on the lives that will be saved. From a model which compares the lives saved with the costs of various screening policies, the valuation of life implied by these policies has been calculated. Screening every three years implies a valuation of life of between $86,000 and $191,000 (1984 prices), which is of a similar order of magnitude to valuations placed on life for other policy purposes. Annual screening would only be appropriate if the valuation of life is $420,000 or over. If screening is to take place at all then it should be done at least every five years. Very infrequent screening cannot be justified because the costs of screening still have to be borne, yet the frequency of detection allows a considerable development of invasive lesions between screenings.