(This commentary was not written by CRD but by the authors of the DH Register).
1)Quality of life effects, pertinent to screening programmes, are not included. 2)Other health costs e.g. CAD related surgery could be included, however discounting would be expected to make the impact of these costs small. 3)Benefits from serum cholesterol reduction are estimated from observational data relating to adults rather than intervention data starting at age ten. 4)The paper reports separate C/E ratios for boys and girls. Since these are similar they have been combined assuming a 1:1 boy-girl ratio. 5)The parameters investigated by the sensitivity analysis were not adequately justified.