General Health Checks in Adult Primary Care: A Review.

JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association
David T LissJeffrey A Linder

Abstract

General health checks, also known as general medical examinations, periodic health evaluations, checkups, routine visits, or wellness visits, are commonly performed in adult primary care to identify and prevent disease. Although general health checks are often expected and advocated by patients, clinicians, insurers, and health systems, others question their value. Randomized trials and observational studies with control groups reported in prior systematic reviews and an updated literature review through March 2021 were included. Among 19 randomized trials (906 to 59 616 participants; follow-up, 1 to 30 years), 5 evaluated a single general health check, 7 evaluated annual health checks, 1 evaluated biannual checks, and 6 evaluated health checks delivered at other frequencies. Twelve of 13 observational studies (240 to 471 415 participants; follow-up, cross-sectional to 5 years) evaluated a single general health check. General health checks were generally not associated with decreased mortality, cardiovascular events, or cardiovascular disease incidence. For example, in the South-East London Screening Study (n = 7229), adults aged 40 to 64 years who were invited to 2 health checks over 2 years, compared with adults not invited t...Continue Reading

References

Apr 22, 1976·The New England Journal of Medicine·D M OlsenP H Proctor
Jan 1, 1986·Journal of Chronic Diseases·G D FriedmanB H Fireman
Apr 1, 1986·European Heart Journal·L WilhelmsenL Werkö
Jan 1, 1995·International Journal of Epidemiology·D L PatrickD E Grembowski
Mar 1, 1995·American Journal of Public Health·L C BurtonR D Clark
Apr 14, 1994·The New England Journal of Medicine·UNKNOWN Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group
May 7, 2002·Annals of Internal Medicine·Sylvia K ObolerRobert J Anderson
Aug 31, 2002·Preventive Medicine·Chii-Jun Chiou, Hsing-Yi Chang
Feb 5, 2003·Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care·Helle KanstrupTorsten Lauritzen
Feb 21, 2007·Annals of Internal Medicine·L Ebony BoulwareGail L Daumit
Sep 6, 2007·Scandinavian Journal of Public Health·Susanne R RasmussenJes Søgaard
Jan 20, 2009·Preventive Medicine·Torben JørgensenErik Lykke Mortensen
Jan 28, 2014·PloS One·Jason Schnittker, Valerio Bacak
Jul 30, 2014·The British Journal of General Practice : the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners·Michael CaleyNicola Wright
Jul 16, 2015·Psychiatric Services : a Journal of the American Psychiatric Association·Elizabeth PfohSydney M Dy
Oct 16, 2015·The New England Journal of Medicine·Allan H Goroll
May 4, 2016·CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'Association Medicale Canadienne·Kiara Chu-Mei ChangChristopher Millett
Dec 21, 2016·The British Journal of General Practice : the Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners·John RobsonSandra Eldridge
Oct 5, 2018·Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health·Kiara C-M ChangChristopher Millett
Oct 31, 2018·Nature Reviews. Cardiology·Bhavin B Adhyaru, Terry A Jacobson
Dec 13, 2018·International Journal of Public Health·Anne Mette BenderCharlotta Pisinger
Jan 29, 2019·JAMA Internal Medicine·David M LevineJeffrey A Linder
Jun 20, 2019·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Rita Rubin
Feb 6, 2020·Annals of Internal Medicine·Ishani GanguliAteev Mehrotra
Feb 26, 2020·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·UNKNOWN US Preventive Services Task ForceJohn B Wong

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Sep 26, 2021·Journal of General Internal Medicine·Jeffrey H Millstein, Anish K Agarwal
Oct 27, 2021·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·David T LissJeffrey A Linder
Oct 27, 2021·JAMA : the Journal of the American Medical Association·Jeremy S Faust

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Cardiovascular Disease Pathophysiology

Cardiovascular disease involves several different processes that contribute to the pathological mechanism, including hyperglycemia, inflammation, atherosclerosis, hypertension and more. Vasculature stability plays a critical role in the development of the disease. Discover the latest research on cardiovascular disease pathophysiology here.

Related Papers

Delaware Journal of Public Health
Margot West
JAMA Internal Medicine
Roger M Cass
BMJ : British Medical Journal
Torsten LauritzenKnut Borch-Johnsen
BMJ : British Medical Journal
P D Toon
BMJ : British Medical Journal
J A Main, P G Main
© 2021 Meta ULC. All rights reserved