Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Mr. Franklin was talking about fire prevention, but this adage holds true for healthcare as well. It is far easier to prevent medical problems than it is to try to treat the complications of chronic health conditions. While it is not possible to prevent all chronic health conditions, being proactive with your healthcare is one of the best ways to prevent long-term complications.
Whether you call it an annual health visit, a yearly physical, or a preventative health maintenance exam, it goes by many names. It is very important to your overall health to visit the doctor once a year, not for problems, but to discuss your overall health and any preventative health tests you may be due for.
What Is an Annual Health Visit?
An annual health visit is an appointment with your doctor or other healthcare provider to discuss screening tests and other preventative healthcare. You may have many medical conditions for which you see your doctor regularly, or you may only go in when you’re sick. The annual health visit isn’t to discuss these problems—it’s an opportunity to look at your overall health.
The recommendations for preventative screening vary by age, gender, family history, and medical history. The annual health visit gives you an opportunity to go through all of these risk factors with your provider to determine which screening options are right for you. In many cases, there may be testing options available that you don’t know about.
Types of Preventative Health Tests
When people hear about preventative health, they frequently think about mammograms, pap smears, or colonoscopies. Preventative healthcare actually has many components, and these tests are only a small portion.
Vitals
Your office visit usually starts with the medical assistant or nurse measuring your height and weight, checking your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. These measurements give your provider a place to start evaluating your overall health. Your provider will look at your BMI, whether your blood pressure is high, and whether there is a significant change in any of these numbers compared to where you normally run.
Family History
You will be asked to update your family history. Your family history will help your provider determine what screening tests to recommend.
Social History
Your social history includes habits such as alcohol use, smoking, and drug use. It also includes your living situation and history of occupational exposure.
Medical History Update
Your provider will need to know if you have had any changes in your medical history since your last annual exam. They’ll want an update on any specialists you see and if you have had any hospitalizations or new diagnoses since your last annual health exam.
Functional Level
How long does it take you to stand up from a chair and take a couple of steps? Do you need help with activities of daily living including shopping, transportation, or managing money and appointments? Are you having trouble bathing, eating, and using the toilet? How is your vision? Do you have any memory issues? These are all things that your provider will assess to decide recommendations for additional testing.
Depression Screen
Your provider will perform a screen for depression.
Advanced Care Planning
Do you have a living will or advanced directives? Have you discussed Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST)? The annual health visit is an opportunity to discuss your preferences for your care long term.
Screening Tests
Labs, X-rays, EKGs… Here is what you should expect from an annual health visit.
Labs
Labs include labs for cardiovascular screening and diabetic testing. The timing and frequency of these labs vary based on those risk factors, but they should be checked at a minimum of every five years. Lipid panel, hemoglobin A1c, metabolic panel, thyroid testing, and blood counts are just some of the tests your provider may order.
Prostate Cancer Screening
The current recommendations from the U.S. preventative services task force are to consider screening in men aged 55-69. You should talk to your doctor about whether this test is right for you. They recommend against screening for prostate cancer in men over 70.
Breast Cancer Screening
There has been some controversy in recent years regarding at what age screening for breast cancer should begin and how often it should occur. Generally, the recommendations say that breast cancer screening should begin sometime between 40 and 50 in average risk women and should occur every 1-2 years until age 75. The newest recommendations as of May 2023 will likely move the recommendation back to age 40. If you have a family history of breast cancer, the recommendation may be to start earlier or to have additional imaging studies or alternative studies for screening.
Colon Cancer Screening
Colon cancer screening is recommended to start at age 45. There are many types of colon cancer screening depending on your risk factors. Colon cancer screening should occur anywhere from every year to every 10 years depending on what type of screening test you and your provider decide is best for you.
Osteoporosis Screening
Bone density testing is performed starting at age 65 in average risk women and younger than 65 in women with increased risk factors. There is not currently a recommendation for screening for osteoporosis in men. Screening occurs between two and five years apart depending on risk factors and results.
EKG
EKG is recommended for screening at the initial Medicare wellness exam, which happens within the first six months after joining Medicare.
So, What Is the Point of All This Testing?
The goal of an annual health maintenance exam is to identify and update your health risks to allow you and your provider to decide how best to keep you healthy. The goal of screening tests is to identify health problems when they can be treated more easily. As implied by the name, the annual health maintenance exam should happen once a year. Keeping up with your annual health maintenance exams helps prevent you from developing more serious health conditions and catch potential problems early. So put in the time now for the ounce of prevention to potentially avoid needing the pound of cure down the line.
Call your healthcare provider today to schedule your annual health visit.
