Difference Between Basic & Comprehensive Health Screening
A healthy lifestyle is a key to a long and happy life. Certain illnesses and diseases affect the quality of one’s life. And the only way to avoid those is to get yourself screened once in a while so any such issue can be detected at an early stage.
That’s why health screening has become a norm in all developed countries.
No matter how healthier you feel and appear to others, there can still be dangerous diseases lurking inside your body that might make its presence felt later. Health screening saves people from never-ending hospital visits when small and untreated issues escalate.
But often, people have ambiguities regarding health screening. How much screening is enough for a certain age group? Like young people are less vulnerable to some cancers that affect aged people. The same goes for diabetes, heart conditions, and blood pressure problems.
In this article, I’m going to compare basic health screening vs comprehensive health screening. Since hospitals and visa medical centers have different types of screenings available, one can easily get confused.
By knowing what kind of screenings are carried out in the two, you will be able to decide which one is sufficient for your age group.
Basic Health Screening
In the basic health screening, the doctor carries out normal checks like:
- Blood count
- Sugar levels
- Cholesterol levels
- Kidney function
- Liver function
- Blood pressure
- X-ray to detect any issue inside the body
Most of these checks involve a simple blood test, which is enough to determine the blood count, sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and platelets. Besides that, your doctor may ask you questions to further ensure your liver, heart, kidney, and other organs are functioning normally.
Basic health screening is for people with no such apparent health problems. In terms of age, anyone under 40 can opt for basic screening.
Basic screening can also involve a chest x-ray which is done to pick up the abnormalities of the lungs, and ECG for heart diseases.
As far as the time duration of the whole screening concerned, it barely takes a couple of hours and then you allowed to leave. If the procedures completed fast, it will take even less than an hour.
The basic package is ideal for people with no such family history of hereditary illnesses. How often you should go for basic screening depends on your health. Normally, doctors recommend it once every three years.
However, if you are frequently experiencing the same or similar health issues, you can go for the basic screening to clear your doctor’s concerns.
Comprehensive Health Screening
As the name suggests, comprehensive health screening covers everything. You will screened for cancer, thyroid, sexually transmitted disease, and Hepatitis A and B. This takes more time than the basic screening as some test results come out after a day or two.
A stool test carried out to eliminate possibilities like colon cancer. Besides that, your stool test will help doctors to diagnose certain conditions affecting the digestive tract.
Women required to go to multiple screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer, and other health problems common among aged women.
Both men and women go through lower abdomen ultrasounds to check the conditions of the liver, gallbladder, and kidneys.
Your doctor will also check vitamin and calcium levels in your body to prevent future problems caused by vitamin and calcium deficiency.
If an issue found, your doctor may recommend further tests to determine the cause of the issue and start the treatment accordingly.
As it goes without saying, from multiple screenings and their results, the whole process can take up to two days, or even more.
Is it Worth Spending on Health Screening?
Yes, of course, it’s much cheaper to treat an issue at an early stage rather than paying hefty hospital admission fees when your illness has reached an advanced stage. An early diagnostic is only possible if you go to a health screening.
Basic health screening is budget-friendly. And if it covered by your health insurance provider, then it doesn’t cost you a penny. All you will have to do is consider the best medical centers near you to get yourself screen.
And just in case it not covered in your health insurance, it still is a fair deal. Spend a few bucks on health screening and save thousands of dollars in the future. And most importantly, enjoy a healthy life.
A healthy individual can eat anything he wants to, travel anywhere, play any sports, do the gym, and enjoy his life to the fullest. But if you have advanced-stage diabetes, blood pressure problems, or something worse, you find yourself restricted to a cage.
All you worry about is taking pills on time, weekly doctor check-ups, and pain killers ( may nobody have to go through such a situation).
