Attending a routine health check appointment, such as the NHS Health Check offered for free in the UK, has been found to be associated with a decreased risk of death and a lower risk of developing certain diseases, including dementia and liver cirrhosis. These findings, published in BMC Medicine, suggest that preventive screening programs like the NHS Health Check can effectively reduce the overall risk of long-term diseases in a population.
The NHS Health Check is a preventive screening program designed to identify individuals at risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease. It is offered to healthy adults aged 40-74, who are invited to undergo basic physical checks and complete a health behavior survey.
Following the appointment, attendees are provided with tailored support to delay or prevent the onset of the screened-for conditions. Similar programs are also implemented in other countries, such as France and Germany. However, until now, little research has been conducted to determine the effectiveness of such programs in preventing long-term diseases.
To investigate the associations between attending an NHS Health Check appointment and the risk of death or future diagnosis of various health conditions, Celeste McCracken and colleagues analyzed data from 97,204 UK Biobank participants. The participants were recruited between 2006 and 2010, with 48,602 individuals attending a Health Check appointment from January 2008 to June 2016. Each participant who attended an appointment was matched with a participant who did not attend, but had similar demographics and health behaviors. The linked health records of the participants were then examined for disease diagnoses over an average follow-up period of nine years.
The analysis revealed that those who attended an NHS Health Check appointment had significantly lower diagnosis rates for several diseases. Specifically, they had a 19% lower rate of dementia diagnosis, a 23% lower rate of acute kidney injury diagnosis, and a 44% lower rate of liver cirrhosis diagnosis. Moreover, the recipients of the NHS Health Check had a 23% lower risk of death from any cause.
These findings support the notion that preventive screening programs, like the NHS Health Check, can effectively reduce the incidence of long-term diseases. However, the researchers acknowledge the possibility of a self-selection bias in the results. Typically, individuals who attend screening programs are healthier than those who do not. To mitigate this bias, the authors employed a matching process to select control participants with similar characteristics to the Health Check attendees.
In conclusion, routine health checks, such as the NHS Health Check, have been shown to be associated with a decreased risk of mortality and the development of certain diseases. These findings highlight the effectiveness of preventive screening programs in reducing the overall burden of long-term diseases in a population. Implementation and promotion of such programs can play a crucial role in improving public health outcomes.
Note:
1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
2. We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it