WATCH: Check ups are important but may not include many tests. Crystal Goomansingh reports.
TORONTO – Improved health is one of the most popular New Years resolutions and if 2015 includes an annual check up, don’t be shocked if you leave the office with nothing more than having your doctor test your blood pressure.
“People think they need to go in and have a whole battery of blood tests and other tests, you known, such as cardiac and scans etcetera but the reality is that the average person doesn’t need a lot of tests. Depending on the age group there are different tests that we recommend but most of the recommendations for doing a lot of these tests is based on risk factors but for the average healthy person, you don’t need a lot of tests at all,” said Dr. Samir Gupta, a Physician and Medical Contributor for Global News Toronto.
The basic blood pressure test is one of the few tests that everyone over the age of 18 should get and is done at almost every doctors visit.
As for your annual check up, Gupta says it’s important but your doctor uses it more as an opportunity to talk with you and learn about your lifestyle and possible risk factors for disease such as high alcohol consumption then to physically examine you.
This can lead some patients to feel as if their doctor hasn’t done enough for them because tests haven’t been ordered.
The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (CTFPHC) has made several changes when it comes to tests once considered needed and routine.
In 2014 the CTFPHC released new guidelines saying the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is no longer effective as a prostate cancer-screening tool and no longer recommends screening men.
“There is a prevailing sentiment that more testing is better because you’re more likely to find something and prevent something. So that conversation about negative health consequences to what we call over-diagnosis. finding things that wouldn’t necessarily affected the patient had we never found them and leading to also tests that have their own complications. So that’s what we are trying to do from a scientific point of view,” said Gupta.
There is also an on-going campaign called ‘Choose Wisely Canada‘ with a goal of educating both doctors and patients about “unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures do not add value to care,” according to its website.
Dr. Gupta says doctors and patients need to talk openly about health priorities and concerns in order to create an individualized health plan for this year and into the future.
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