Why Are Regular Health Checks Important to Your Health?

In Vietnam, as in many developing countries, the concept of having regular health checks every six months or once a year for healthy and well individuals is still unfamiliar to many people. As a result, many people see their doctors only when their illness has reached a more severe stage. At this point, they may be very sick or suffer from unbearable pain. Treatment at this advanced stage of illness is often much more expensive and the outcome may not be as good.

This is not an ideal situation.

A routine health checkup, when performed accurately by a competent doctor, is useful for early diagnosis of disease and contributes greatly to improving the health of individuals. From the point of view of the population as a whole, if health checks are done on a large scale, this can improve the health and productivity of entire economies.

“Prevention is better than cure”—the earlier the disease is found, the more likely it is to be curable. More importantly, recognising the risk factors of a disease early can allow a physician to intervene early, advising patients to modify their lifestyles to avoid the illness in the future. Therefore, routine health checkups should be performed for everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

What happens during a health check?

A health checkup is a medical consultation with a series of tests that the physician performs to prevent disease and improve the patient’s health.

After carefully considering the patient’s age, family and medical history—as well as the patient’s habits and lifestyle—the physician will indicate the necessary tests and examinations.

Some common tests are done for almost, if not all, patients—such as blood sugar testing. If the blood test result is abnormal, the physician may order additional tests to check if the patient has, for example, diabetes. Certain specific tests, however, are only performed depending on the age and risk factors of the patient. A good example is a breast ultrasound or an X-ray for screening of breast cancer for women (called a mammogram). Not all patients will need to undergo this testing; only a very select group of people will be required to undergo it based on specific screening indications.

Not all tests require blood to be drawn or scans to be done. Many tests are simple, but give doctors a very good insight into the health and risk factors of the individual. For example, BMI is a good indicator of health—this is an adult’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in metres that helps to assess their nutritional status. An excessively high BMI is an important indicator of poor health in the future.

Armed with accurate test results, a physician can recommend key lifestyle changes to the patient, or further testing or even treatment so that they can become healthier.

Does my insurance cover health screening tests?

Different insurance companies have different plans and varying coverage. Many international health insurance plans, however, do cater for one health screening/checkup every year as part of the insurance plan. It is important that you are aware of this and use your insurance coverage wisely to improve your health.

(Dr. Ong Kian Soon, General Practitioner at Raffles Medical Vietnam)

HIGHLIGHTS

HIGHLIGHT

Choose language and location

Chat box live