What are Preventive Health Checks & Wellness Services?
Preventive health checks and wellness services are medical services that focus on maximizing the overall physical and mental wellbeing of an individual as well as the prevention or early detection of disease to ensure positive treatment outcomes.
Benefits of Preventive Health Checks & Wellness Services
Health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Preventive health check-ups and wellness services help improve the various aspects of your health.
Physical Well-being:
- Helps establish the baseline health status
- Helps to detect risk factors of certain diseases
- Helps to detect asymptomatic diseases
- Prevents the risk of secondary infections
- Detection of diseases in their early stages
Cognitive and Emotional Well-being
- Conditions like Alzheimer's and Dementia can cause cognitive impairment and mental stress in elderly people. Early detection helps to reduce the trauma and mental stress.
- Reduces the stress suffered by patients recovering from chronic diseases
Functional Well-being
- Assessment of functional ability to work or live independently
- Education about fall prevention in the elderly
Financial Well-being
- Preventive health checks help to avoid costly hospital bills in the long run
- Work productivity can be increased by avoiding absence due to illness
Candidates for Preventive Health Checks & Wellness
- For people above age 30 who are generally healthy with a normal body mass index, health checks should be done once in every 2-3 years.
- People between the ages of 30-50 who are overweight and regularly consume tobacco and alcohol should undergo regular check-ups every year.
- People above 50 years of age are more prone to diseases, so preventive health checks should be performed every year.
Tests involved in Preventive Health Checks
Some of the most common screening tests that are part of the preventive health checks include:
Health checks for heart disease
- Blood pressure screening: This should be done every 2 years if below 40 years of age and should be done every year for those above 40 years to avoid the chances of heart attack and stroke.
- Blood sugar screening: This test is done to determine the glucose level in your blood to help identify early-stage diabetes.
- Lipid profile screening: This test is done to determine the cholesterol levels in the blood and can be performed regularly after the age of 40 years.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG): This test evaluates cardiac function.
Health checks for cancer
- Lung cancer screening
- Colon cancer screening
- Prostate cancer screening
- Skin cancer screening
- Cervical cancer test
- Lung cancer screening
- Mammogram for breast cancer
- Bone mineral density test
Other common health tests include:
- Urine analysis: This test is done to determine the presence of urinary tract infection.
- Dental examination: Complete examination of teeth, lips and mouth should be performed once a year.
- Vision and hearing test: These tests should be performed yearly for people above 65 years of age.
- Osteoporosis screening: Bone density test (DEXA scan)determines the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women above age 50.
- Vaccinations and immunizations: As part of preventive care, immunization and vaccinations are provided for whooping cough, tetanus, measles, flu or many other diseases.