4 ms·

As an Israeli, are blood tests not a normal thing done everywhere? I did not realize that... My family doctor asks for a battery of lab tests about once a year

As an Israeli, are blood tests not a normal thing done everywhere? I did not realize that... My family doctor asks for a battery of lab tests about once a year (or whenever I get around to scheduling a check-up), including glucose and cholesterol and liver functions and so on. This has been going on since I was twenty something.

marcyb5st 6y ago
Not in my experience. I also lived in Sweden and UK. Blood tests are usually only a reactivate thing. You're sick you get blood tests. As prevention not as common I'm afraid.
- ynfnehf 6y ago
  The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think the similar reasoning is used in other countries. If you can read swedish/use Google translate, this page explains it very clearly: https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjalpmedel/ska-jag-ga-pa-halsokontroll-varje-ar/ https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjal...
  - inglor_cz 6y ago
    "And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are." Uh, high blood pressure is a typical "silent" disease with major effect on health later.
    - caskstrength 6y ago
      You don't need a blood test to measure your blood pressure though.
    - ynfnehf 6y ago
      The article says that you should check blood pressure and blood sugar every 5 years. And blood fats "some time". But that's very different from a regular check up.
  - null_object 6y ago
    > The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think this is naive: there are a number of reasons people in Sweden don't easily get health-checks, and among these are certainly cost-saving, where the healthcare representatives who you need to contact before speaking to a doctor or nurse act as gatekeepers to the system. This 'rationing' of resources can sometimes have dire consequences, as happened to a former colleague of mine, who was denied the in-person checks he needed and almost died as a consequence. There's also an enormous amount of peer-pressure in Sweden to be skinny, fit and actively go to the gym several times each week. A fat person is an extreme rarity in Stockholm. Couple this with an ingrained cultural 'guilt-complex' instilled in everyone not to be a 'burden' on anyone else, and the health-service is suddenly transformed into an 'emergency-only' institution. Naturally that may be seen as a positive - although for some people it may have bad outcomes. It certainly contrasts with my extended family in Spain, who have tests for every possible malady at all times. But otoh that seems to work pretty good too, as one of my uncles died last year at the age of 102.
thorin 6y ago
I feel in UK they are not that common unless you are ill. For company medicals / private health schemes and for certain age groups they do happen.
gillesjacobs 6y ago
In Belgium, my general practitioner told me it used to be common practice to simple cross every box on the blood test selection sheet for a client's annual checkup. Right now there is rightfully pushback against unnecessary testing. Over-medicalization by which people are subjected to treatment without suffering under symptoms is very much a problem. Also the socialized healthcare providers are not happy with this, as you can imagine.
- calvano915 6y ago
  Why conflate over/unnecessary treatment with availability and evaluation of markers? I guess if neither the patient nor the health care practitioner are uninterested in careful consideration of the data, then why bother I suppose. But then why bother at all with seat-belts, environmental laws, or dental visits if there's no value to prevention? We can just react after its too late, for everything. /s in some of this, perhaps all
  - gillesjacobs 6y ago
    There's a multitude of reasons, touched upon in a metastudy of inappropriate lab testing in medicine [1,2]: > “But, unexpectedly, on a per-test basis, we actually found that the main problem was tests being over-ordered during a patient’s initial examination, rather than during repeat tests. This indicates to us that ordering the right test during the initial evaluation may lead to fewer errors and better patient care,” he said. a. Tests are not accurate, a false positive causes alarm and follow-up examination where none was present. b. On the inverse: negative tests provide a false sense of security and good-health. [2] discusses this as the prime motivator for patient blood test requests. c. Economic cost to the insurer or ultimately patient/taxpayer, not of the tests themselves but of the downstream examinations. As a general rule in medicine: Don't treat a patient without signs or symptoms. When a persons feels healthy, they usually are healthy. 1. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/unnecessary-testing https://hms.harvard.edu/news/unnecessary-testing 2. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078962 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... 3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769380/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769380/
esperent 6y ago
I'm Irish and never heard of someone getting one unless they were checking for something specific. However, I do know that regular health checks are recommended once you hit 45 or so. Not sure if that includes blood tests. We're currently ranked 16th in the world for longevity, so I doubt regular blood checks is that important - at least, I remember reading previously that there's no evidence regular blood checks are actually useful unless you have an ongoing condition.
- circlefavshape 6y ago
  Irish too, and I get bloods done every year because I noticed my health insurance covers me for an annual checkup. First time I got them done revealed I had very high cholesterol
TurboHaskal 6y ago
I got a funny stare from the doctor in Germany when I wanted to check my cholesterol levels. My wife OTOH got it done without an issue. So yeah maybe they don't bother with males or foreigners.
- iforgotpassword 6y ago
  Yep we only care about hot chics and Germans. But seriously, was it the same doctor? Then it would indeed be kinda weird, but otherwise there is a wide range of types of doctors, those who love checkups and prescribing stuff and sending you to a specialist whenever you report the slightest problem, and those that just send you home again no matter what, tell you to get some rest, work less, eat healthier, and maybe come back in two weeks if it doesn't fix itself. And then everything in between.
krtkush 6y ago
As an Indian I'll say that annual health check-ups are now normal amongst the privileged class. In my opinion it is a good thing considering how unhealthy our environment and lifestyle is along with a lot of predisposed conditions.

marcyb5st 6y ago

Not in my experience. I also lived in Sweden and UK. Blood tests are usually only a reactivate thing. You're sick you get blood tests. As prevention not as common I'm afraid.

ynfnehf 6y ago
The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think the similar reasoning is used in other countries. If you can read swedish/use Google translate, this page explains it very clearly: https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjalpmedel/ska-jag-ga-pa-halsokontroll-varje-ar/ https://www.1177.se/fragor--svar/nationellt/behandling--hjal...
- inglor_cz 6y ago
  "And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are." Uh, high blood pressure is a typical "silent" disease with major effect on health later.
  - caskstrength 6y ago
    You don't need a blood test to measure your blood pressure though.
  - ynfnehf 6y ago
    The article says that you should check blood pressure and blood sugar every 5 years. And blood fats "some time". But that's very different from a regular check up.
- null_object 6y ago
  > The reason Sweden doesn't do regular health checks of the population is because there is no good scientific evidence that it has any effect. And that if a person feels healthy, they most likely are. I think this is naive: there are a number of reasons people in Sweden don't easily get health-checks, and among these are certainly cost-saving, where the healthcare representatives who you need to contact before speaking to a doctor or nurse act as gatekeepers to the system. This 'rationing' of resources can sometimes have dire consequences, as happened to a former colleague of mine, who was denied the in-person checks he needed and almost died as a consequence. There's also an enormous amount of peer-pressure in Sweden to be skinny, fit and actively go to the gym several times each week. A fat person is an extreme rarity in Stockholm. Couple this with an ingrained cultural 'guilt-complex' instilled in everyone not to be a 'burden' on anyone else, and the health-service is suddenly transformed into an 'emergency-only' institution. Naturally that may be seen as a positive - although for some people it may have bad outcomes. It certainly contrasts with my extended family in Spain, who have tests for every possible malady at all times. But otoh that seems to work pretty good too, as one of my uncles died last year at the age of 102.

thorin 6y ago

I feel in UK they are not that common unless you are ill. For company medicals / private health schemes and for certain age groups they do happen.

gillesjacobs 6y ago

In Belgium, my general practitioner told me it used to be common practice to simple cross every box on the blood test selection sheet for a client's annual checkup. Right now there is rightfully pushback against unnecessary testing. Over-medicalization by which people are subjected to treatment without suffering under symptoms is very much a problem. Also the socialized healthcare providers are not happy with this, as you can imagine.

calvano915 6y ago
Why conflate over/unnecessary treatment with availability and evaluation of markers? I guess if neither the patient nor the health care practitioner are uninterested in careful consideration of the data, then why bother I suppose. But then why bother at all with seat-belts, environmental laws, or dental visits if there's no value to prevention? We can just react after its too late, for everything. /s in some of this, perhaps all
- gillesjacobs 6y ago
  There's a multitude of reasons, touched upon in a metastudy of inappropriate lab testing in medicine [1,2]: > “But, unexpectedly, on a per-test basis, we actually found that the main problem was tests being over-ordered during a patient’s initial examination, rather than during repeat tests. This indicates to us that ordering the right test during the initial evaluation may lead to fewer errors and better patient care,” he said. a. Tests are not accurate, a false positive causes alarm and follow-up examination where none was present. b. On the inverse: negative tests provide a false sense of security and good-health. [2] discusses this as the prime motivator for patient blood test requests. c. Economic cost to the insurer or ultimately patient/taxpayer, not of the tests themselves but of the downstream examinations. As a general rule in medicine: Don't treat a patient without signs or symptoms. When a persons feels healthy, they usually are healthy. 1. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/unnecessary-testing https://hms.harvard.edu/news/unnecessary-testing 2. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078962 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... 3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769380/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769380/

esperent 6y ago

I'm Irish and never heard of someone getting one unless they were checking for something specific. However, I do know that regular health checks are recommended once you hit 45 or so. Not sure if that includes blood tests. We're currently ranked 16th in the world for longevity, so I doubt regular blood checks is that important - at least, I remember reading previously that there's no evidence regular blood checks are actually useful unless you have an ongoing condition.

circlefavshape 6y ago
Irish too, and I get bloods done every year because I noticed my health insurance covers me for an annual checkup. First time I got them done revealed I had very high cholesterol

TurboHaskal 6y ago

I got a funny stare from the doctor in Germany when I wanted to check my cholesterol levels. My wife OTOH got it done without an issue. So yeah maybe they don't bother with males or foreigners.

iforgotpassword 6y ago
Yep we only care about hot chics and Germans. But seriously, was it the same doctor? Then it would indeed be kinda weird, but otherwise there is a wide range of types of doctors, those who love checkups and prescribing stuff and sending you to a specialist whenever you report the slightest problem, and those that just send you home again no matter what, tell you to get some rest, work less, eat healthier, and maybe come back in two weeks if it doesn't fix itself. And then everything in between.

krtkush 6y ago

As an Indian I'll say that annual health check-ups are now normal amongst the privileged class. In my opinion it is a good thing considering how unhealthy our environment and lifestyle is along with a lot of predisposed conditions.