Technical notes
BreastScreen Australia
The number of screening mammograms performed by BreastScreen Australia is reported for women aged 50–74 (the target age group of BreastScreen Australia) for:
- January to September 2018;
- January to September 2019; and
- January to September 2020.
Note that while data for 2019 are shown, due to the biennial nature of screening through BreastScreen Australia, 2020 data should only be compared with 2018 data.
These data are counts of screening mammograms, not people, and should not be compared to the formal BreastScreen Australia participation indicator.
All data are considered preliminary, and are therefore subject to minor changes in future publications as data are revised.
Data were kindly provided by state and territory BreastScreen programs.
National Cervical Screening Program
The number of cervical screening tests (defined as HPV tests for which the reason was primary screening test) is reported for people aged 25–74 (the target age group of the National Cervical Screening Program) for:
- January to September 2018;
- January to September 2019; and
- January to September 2020.
Note that while data for 2018 and 2019 are shown, it is not useful to compare the actual numbers to those in 2020 due to a shift from 2-yearly screening to 5-yearly screening resulting in fewer cervical screening tests in 2020, even before COVID-19. These data do, however, provide information on temporal trends in cervical screening, to aid in the assessment of any impacts of COVID-19 on cervical screening tests in 2020.
These data are counts of tests, not people, and should not be compared to the formal National Cervical Screening Program participation indicator.
All data are considered preliminary, and are therefore subject to minor changes in future publications as data are revised.
Data were extracted from the National Cancer Screening Register.
National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
Invites issued are a count of all screening invitations issued by the National Cancer Screening Register (this register took over operation of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Register from November 2019). Two-yearly screening was fully rolled out during 2020.
Screening tests are a count of all kits returned. This can include kits issued in a previous period and returned to the register at a later date. It can also include multiple kits per person due to expired, spoiled, damaged, or incorrectly completed kits.
The number of invites and screening tests is reported for people aged 50–74 (the target age group of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program) for:
- January to September 2019; and
- January to September 2020.
These data are counts of tests, not people, and should not be compared to the formal National Bowel Cancer Screening Program participation indicator.
All data are considered preliminary, and are therefore subject to minor changes in future publications as data are revised.
Data were extracted from the National Cancer Screening Register.
Weeks
The number-of-week value is represented as a decimal number in the range 01–53 and uses a leading zero and a maximum value of 53. Weeks begin on a Monday and week 1 of the year is the week that includes both January 4th and the first Thursday of the year. If the first Monday of January is the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, the preceding days are part of the last week of the preceding year.
Week 1 in 2020 includes days in December 2019, and week 40 includes days in October 2020. Therefore these weeks are not included.
Months
Months were assigned using the month part of the invite or screening test date.
State or territory
For the National Cervical Screening Program and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, state or territory refers to the state or territory of residence. For BreastScreen Australia, state or territory reported refers to the state or territory in which screening occurred, not the state or territory of residence.