There is a rising trend of preventive health check-ups, in order to provide better healthcare solutions, especially in the wake of the current Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a marked increase in the level of general health awareness among people. This trend is seen more in the middle and high-income groups, who tend to opt for corporate platinum, gold and silver health checkup packages which are designed to offer a bouquet of basic routine blood, urine and stool tests, coupled with cardiac health screening, imaging tests like x-ray and ultrasound, with advanced scans like DEXA, mammogram and pap smear, etc. thrown in for good measure.
The outcomes of these packages may be a cause for concern for several reasons. Firstly, the fact of the matter is that these packages are targeted for only the upper crust who can afford them and the real beneficiaries are the corporate houses and the hospitals or diagnostic centers, more than the people who are undergoing these tests. Secondly, these packages may well overlook the actual health aberration of a seemingly healthy individual, which may be requiring close medical observation, simply because they are not individually tailored for his health needs. Thirdly, in effect, a perfectly healthy individual may be undergoing needless tests and radiation exposure which may pose a future risk for him. Fourthly, normal values of tests are represented in a range and based on derivations from studies of a large section of the population, whereas for an individual, falling on either side of the range may be completely normal for him, based on his own individual health make-up. Fifthly, it is very likely that out of a package of 20-odd tests that a normal healthy person goes through, at least one test may show abnormal results and lead medical experts on to a wild goose chase. This would result in the individual undergoing another deluge of sometimes unnecessary advanced tests and scans, escalating the costs for him, and making the actual beneficiaries go laughing all the way to the bank. Therefore, it would not be unseemly to assume that preventive health check-up packages have their limitations. They may not be too harmful, but they are not too helpful either.
A review of about 12000 deaths was conducted in 2012 and was reported in the editorial of the British Medical Journal in 2014, which found no effect of preventive health check-ups on general, cardiovascular or cancer-related mortalities.
Thus, individually tailored diagnostic screening, based on the clinical assessment of an individual’s symptoms and medical history and designed specifically for him by medical professionals, makes for offering him rational healthcare. This would save him from spending a small fortune on health check–up packages that may be completely unnecessary and purposeless.
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