Study says annual physical checkup may not be necessary

William Atkins
Wednesday, 26 September 2007 21:17

Science - Health

According to U.S. physicians, preventive health examinations have only modest benefit to people because most preventative tests are performed at other times during the year.         

Dr. Ateev Mehrotra (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and RAND Health), Dr. Alan M. Zaslavsky (Harvard Medical School), and Dr. John Z. Ayanian (Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital) co-authored the study entitled “Preventive Health Examinations and Preventive Gynecological Examinations in the United States.”

The article is published in the September 24, 2007 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine (2007, 167, 1876-1883).

The three researchers state within their paper: “Preventive health examinations (PHEs) are controversial, and limited data are available on their use and content.”

The researchers used data from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2004, taken from two national surveys of adults visiting office-based doctors: the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. From the data, 181,173 adult outpatient visits occurred. Of those, 5,387 were for preventive health examinations and 3,026 were for preventive gynecological examinations. [statistics from Forbes]


From this data, they estimated that 44.4 million adults (about 21% of the U.S. adult population) each year receive a preventive health examination (PHE) and 19.4 million women (about 18% of the U.S. adult women population) each year receive a preventive gynecological examination (PGE).

However, the researchers state that 80% of preventive care does not occur during these two annual checkups. The researchers also state that an estimated $7.8 billion was spent on these annual preventive visits throughout the United States and an estimated $350 million of potentially unnecessary medical tests are performed. [statistics from Reuters and found at Scientific American]

They conclude in their study: “PHEs and PGEs are among the most common reasons adults see a physician. These visits frequently include preventive services, but most preventive services are provided at other visits. These findings provide a foundation for continuing national deliberations about the use and content of PHEs and PGEs.”