Evidence is mounting that annual medical checkups for healthy adults does not produce better health results.
Instead, new research shows that focusing on special tests for colon and breast cancers would do less damage and provide more protection at less cost.
“The paper is believed to be the first large review of existing studies to conclude that general health checks—the sort of screening done in typical annual physicals—don’t affect rates of death and disease. It was published Tuesday by the Cochrane Collaboration, a U.K.-based nonprofit that conducts reviews to help providers and patients make health-care decisions,” wrote the Wall Street Journal today.
“The utility of preventive services for healthy people is continually debated in the U.S. Screening can be expensive and may lead to unnecessary testing or treatment. However, efforts to curb tests thought to be ineffective or reduce their frequency have been controversial.”
“Groups such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, nongovernment body that develops guidelines for health services, have found evidence of benefits from some types of screening, such as for colon or breast cancer, in certain healthy people, but not for other tests, such as electrocardiograms to detect heart disease. The federal Affordable Care Act requires insurance coverage for preventive care but defers judgments about which services to other groups, including the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the Institute of Medicine, an independent, nonprofit health-advisory organization.”
