1.05 Health checks save lives
Many prople are dying from diseases that could have been avoided if only they had been discovered in time. Today, many diseases are discovered so late that people will suffer from serious and enduring sequelae
Characteristic of several of these diseases is that people may harbour them for many years without experiencing any symptoms. Once they are discovered, it is often too late leading to loss of quality of life or death. Several of these diseases are called 'the silent killers' or 'lifestyle disorders'.
The main causes of cardiovascular disease such as stroke and cerebral haemorrhage are hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia. Some 700,000 individuals in Denmark are currently unaware that they have hypertension and around 250,000 people currently have a cholesterol count so high that it requires treatment - and they do not know it. 300,000 people are estimated to suffer from diabetes, of whom at least half are unaware of their condition. Timely preventive and therapeutic measures will in many cases be life-prolonging for these people.
Lif believes:
- that all Danes should be offered a systematic annual health check within major disease and risk factors such as hypertension as well as elevated cholesterol and blood glucose,
- that the Danish health service should ensure targeted systematic screening of Danes within major cancer areas such as breast and bowel cancer,
- that a plan should be implemented for how systematic preventive health checks can be developed in interaction with general practitioners and municipal health centres.
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