January is a great month to set goals for the year. For many people, their goals involve being healthier—eating healthy foods, getting more exercise or losing weight. One part of being healthier is to not only reverse health problems but to stop illness or disease before they happen, which is referred to as preventive health care.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes preventive health care as “health services like screenings, check-ups and patient counseling that are used to prevent illnesses, disease and other health problems, or to detect illness at an early stage when treatment is likely to work best.”
Researchers have determined which preventive services are most helpful based on a person’s age and health status. There are many different tests or procedures that people can have to monitor their health throughout their lifetime. Health care professionals will make suggestions based on people’s age and personal and family health history. But, in general, preventive health services include:
• Appropriate vaccinations according to age—The CDC reports that 42,000 lives are saved when children get their recommended vaccinations. The CDC also notes that only 46 percent of Blacks—and 67 percent of Whites—get the pneumococcal vaccine recommended for all people 65 and older.
• Cancer screenings—Breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer screenings are important for adults.
• Health tests—It’s also important for you to know your blood pressure, cholesterol level and whether you have a disease like diabetes. All of these are important health markers.
• Regular health visits—It helps to have regular conversations with health care providers. They can be partners in keeping people healthy.
• Healthy lifestyle coaching—Health care providers can discuss different issues that can affect people’s health, like mental health screenings, healthy eating, weight loss, appropriate exercise, quitting smoking and avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.
(For more information on specific preventive health services according to age group and sex, visit https://www.cdc.gov/prevention/.)
Screenings and tests are an essential part of preventive health. But don’t forget about the everyday decisions that are a large part of preventive care. According to Kathleen McTigue, MD, MPH, MS, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, “It’s easy to forget that the everyday decisions—like what we decide to eat for every meal or whether or not we’re going to exercise—are choices that directly affect our health. They may seem like small choices, but they are the choices that determine how healthy we are.”
Dr. McTigue cites years of research that suggests smoking is harmful to people’s health, that flu shots help prevent people from getting the flu and data that strongly suggest that heathy diet, exercise and weight loss will lead to overall better health. But people don’t always take disease prevention into their own hands.
“Our health system focuses on and is really good at treating health problems,” says Dr. McTigue. “It’s easier for people to ignore preventive health and seek help only when they think something’s wrong.
“People should talk with their health care provider about what’s best for them. But taking steps to prevent illness and disease sounds like a great idea for the new year to me,” she says.
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