Ülediagnostikat

Ülediagnostikat (overdiagnosis) refers to the diagnosis of a medical condition that would not have caused symptoms or harm during a person’s lifetime. In healthcare, it often arises through screening and advanced imaging that detect indolent or clinically insignificant diseases.

Causes include population screening programs, incidental findings on imaging, broad diagnostic criteria, and heightened awareness leading to more tests. The result is a patient labeled with a disease and possibly subjected to unnecessary treatments.

Common examples cited in the literature include certain cancers detected by screening, such as prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and some breast cancers (carcinoma in situ). These conditions may remain asymptomatic and may not progress.

Consequences can include physical harms from interventions, psychological distress, follow-up tests, and financial costs, as well as overtreatment and strain on healthcare resources. Overdiagnosis also confounds estimates of disease burden and treatment effectiveness due to lead-time and length-time biases.

Efforts to reduce overdiagnosis emphasize shared decision making, risk-based or age-targeted screening, and stricter diagnostic thresholds, plus careful surveillance strategies (watchful waiting) for slow-growing conditions. Critics argue that some early detection remains important for certain diseases, making the goal to balance benefits and harms an ongoing policy challenge.