Prevention & Risk Factors

Screening Uptake

The purpose of screening is to identify individuals who are otherwise healthy who may be at increased risk of a disease or condition. Screening tests in Scotland are voluntary and are available to help people make an informed choice about their health. Through screening, it is possible to find serious conditions early, before any symptoms appear allowing effective treatment and management of a disease or condition as soon as possible. For further information on the screening programmes which are available in Scotland please refer to Screening – Primary care services – gov.scot.

While screening uptake rates in Grampian are higher than Scotland overall Figure 56 below shows that there remains substantial differences in uptake rates between the most and least deprived areas.

The differential is particularly marked for bowel and cervical screening with uptake rates in the most deprived quintile more than 20 percentage points higher than the least deprived quintile.

Figure 56 – Cervical, Breast, Bowel and AAA Screening Uptake Rates by SIMD Quintile. Click on the image to make it bigger.

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Vaccination Uptake Trends

The aim of vaccination is to protect as many children as possible. NHS Grampian’s vaccination campaigns, including autumn/winter COVID-19 and flu, shingles, pneumococcal, RSV and childhood programmes, have consistently achieved high uptake rates, with most cohorts exceeding the Scottish average. Although vaccine rates are generally high there are pockets of low uptake, mainly in the urban areas linked to deprivation.

Full details of our vaccination programme performance can be found in our annual report, available at: About | Vax Grampian. Please note the annual report covers the previous year’s reporting period, with the next edition due to be published in May.

For up-to-date Scotland-wide vaccination uptake data, visit the Public Health Scotland dashboard at: PHS Vaccination Surveillance, which is updated regularly.

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