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> Young (< 50) healthy adults shouldn’t even really be getting annual checkups (in my professional opinion and per several guidelines) How does letting people
by vehementi 4y ago
> Young (< 50) healthy adults shouldn’t even really be getting annual checkups (in my professional opinion and per several guidelines)
How does letting people have undiagnosed cancer in their 30s and 40s fit in with this?
- bigfudge 4y agoThe reason is that many medical tests have high false positive rates, and the follow procedures have side effects (sometimes). When you administer tests and followups at population scale for a disease with a low prior probability you will do more harm than good, on the average.
- haldujai 4y agoAn annual physical exam isn’t really powered to detect cancer in the modern world, it’s a relic from the past. If you develop cancer in your 30s (sadly too many people) a physical exam or blood test almost certainly wouldn’t have made the difference. We have mammograms for breast cancer and women > 40. Unfortunately there isn’t enough evidence to support a screening program for people younger than that where the pretest probability for malignancy is so low and there are harms associated with tests.