Why is a preventive check-up important? Comprehensive for adults and children

What is a comprehensive preventive check-up for children and adults?
What forms are we familiar with?
How often do I need to have a check-up and why?
What examinations, apart from blood tests and urine tests, will I have?
The answers to these questions and a lot of other interesting information are given in the article.

What is a preventive check-up?

A preventive examination (from Latin praevenire - prevention) is a set of multiple measures aimed at preventing diseases and their consequences. It reduces the likelihood of their occurrence, i.e. morbidity and mortality.

A preventive check-up is not just a blood pressure measurement.
A preventive check-up includes a physical examination of the patient, laboratory tests and in some cases specialised examinations.

In young children, it is performed more frequently. It also has the advantage of maternal counselling and vaccination.

Also read the magazine article:
Childhood vaccinations: importance and safety into adulthood?

The aim of preventive check-ups in adults is to catch certain diseases early, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or cancer.

Early detection of any of these diseases means early and successful treatment.

Disease prevention is not only in the hands of the doctor!
Regular preventive check-ups, from which the patient takes nothing away, are only half as important.
Awareness and individual education are very important in disease prevention.
Just being informed about diseases and the risk factors that cause them, and being properly educated at a young age about healthy lifestyle habits, are among the most effective ways to protect yourself.

Table with the basic division of prevention

Type of prevention	Goal of prevention
Primary prevention	Targeted prevention of disease through education Targeted disease prevention by eliminating risk factors
Secondary prevention	Targeted interception of disease at an early stage targeted screening (cervical cancer, colon cancer)
Tertiary prevention	Prevention of disease progression (advancement, worsening) prevention of excessive patient suffering
Quaternary prevention	Prevention of excessive unjustified diagnosis (X-ray, CT...) prevention of excessive unjustified treatment (ATB, hormonal treatment...)

Which preventive check-up and how often should we go?

Which preventive check-ups to go to with the paediatrician and general practitioner:

three preventive check-ups for a child under 3 months of age
six preventive check-ups for children from 3 months to 1 year of age
one preventive check-up for a child aged 18 months
one preventive check-up for a child every two years from 3 years of age to 18 years of age
one preventive examination for an adult every two years from the age of 18

Which preventive check-ups to attend at the dentist:

Two preventive check-ups per calendar year for a child under 18 years of age
one preventive check-up per calendar year for an adult over 18 years of age
two preventive check-ups for pregnant women during pregnancy

Which preventive check-ups to attend at the gynaecologist:

one preventive check-up per calendar year for a patient aged 15 years or older, or since her first pregnancy
one preventive check-up every month for a pregnant woman
one preventive check-up six weeks after giving birth

Which preventive check-ups to attend at the urologist's

one preventive check-up every three years for an adult aged 50 years and over
one preventive examination every three years for an adult aged 40 years or older with PSA values <= 1.0 ng/ml and a history of prostate cancer in the first degree of consanguinity
one preventive examination every two years for an adult aged 40 years or older with PSA values of 1.1-2.5 ng/ml and a history of prostate cancer in the first degree of consanguinity
one preventive check-up for an adult aged 40 years and over with PSA values of 2.6-4.0 ng/ml with a history of prostate cancer in the first degree of consanguinity once a year

Which preventive check-ups to attend with a gastroenterologist

One preventive examination for an adult aged 50 years and older once every ten years
one preventive examination for a patient at increased risk of colorectal cancer without age limitation every five years

Preventive check-up for children and counselling for mothers

The first preventive check-up is carried out as early as the newborn (within 24 hours after birth), but no later than 48 hours after the mother and child are discharged from the hospital.

This is a basic paediatric examination of the newborn, including taking a complete medical history from the mother (diabetes, illnesses or addictions during pregnancy).

The examination includes:

examination of the general condition
examination of reflexes
skin examination
muscle tone examination
examination of the head circumference
examination of the shape and size of the large fontanelle
examination of the sutures on the skull
examination of the eyes, nose, oral cavity and palate
chest circumference examination
respiratory examination
examination of cardiac sounds
examination of the umbilicus
groin examination
pulsation examination
lower limb symmetry examination
hip examination
genital examination

This initial examination establishes the newborn baby's medical record.

By the third month, the baby has two more preventive examinations with the paediatrician. At 8 to 10 weeks, a sonographic examination of the newborn's hips is performed.

The next six preventive examinations of the child under one year of age focus on the child's psychomotor development. They include vaccinations based on the vaccination schedule.
Vision, hearing, speech, spinal curvature, and genitalia are examined.
This includes an assessment of the child's psychological state and early detection of psychological disorders.

In children, an examination of the baby teeth is also carried out.

They have their first dental check-up after the age of 12 months, and twice a year thereafter.

Preventive check-ups with a general practitioner for adults

You should have an adult preventive check-up with a general practitioner every two years.

At the preventive check-up, the doctor collects personal, family, work and social history, as well as other relevant information (addictions, lifestyle).

The examination itself focuses on a head-to-toe examination.

The examination includes:

visual examination (skin colour and condition, mucous membranes, posture, gait...)
palpation (softness/hardness of the abdomen, palpation of pulsations, foreign bodies...)
tapping examination (pathology of tapping sounds)
listening examination (auscultatory listening of breathing, sound, intestinal peristalsis...)
other examination methods (blood pressure, pulse, ECG)
laboratory tests (blood, urine...)

Preventive examination by a gynaecologist

The first gynaecological preventive check-up cannot be completely age-appropriate.
It is true that every woman should have it after the age of 15 in a gynaecological outpatient clinic.
Due to the intimacy of the examination, there are still many girls who postpone it or do not go to the gynaecologist.

However, there are also several reasons that may bring a woman or even a child to gynaecological examinations earlier than expected.
These include pregnancy before adulthood, bleeding and vaginal discharge as part of infectious, oncological and other diseases.

As with a general practitioner's examination, the gynaecologist initially takes the patient's medical history, which focuses on her family history of gynaecological diseases and malignancies and her sexual life.

The aim is to assess the risks of possible hereditary diseases or the patient's promiscuous behaviour with a high risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

The examination includes:

assessment of the condition of the external genitalia by looking
Vaginal sonographic examination (through the vagina)
abdominal sonographic examination (through the abdomen)
palpation of the breasts once a year
sonographic breast examination once every 2 years
mammographic breast examination every two years from the age of 40
blood sampling for oncomarker testing in patients at risk every six months
blood sampling for oncomarkers in patients aged 35 and over with a family history of tumours once a year
cytological examination of cervical smear from the age of 23 every three years in case of a negative result
cytological examination of cervical smear from the age of 23 years once a year in case of a positive result

Interesting:
Breast cancer is one of the most common female cancers.
It affects younger and younger patients.

Gynaecological preventive check-ups are affecting pregnant patients, where the examination also focuses on the fetus. The frequency is also increasing, to one preventive check-up every month. This interval ends up to 6 weeks after delivery.

The examination includes:

general physical examination of the parturient (blood pressure, height, weight...)
examination of the uterus and cervix
examination of the fetus (size, echoes, abnormalities)
laboratory tests (blood, urine...)

Preventive examination by a urologist

A preventive urological examination is usually carried out in patients after the age of 50 once every three years.
In patients at risk, it is carried out earlier, once every 1 to 3 years from the age of 40, based on laboratory parameters.

The aim of urological examination is early detection of prostate and male organ cancer.

Read also the magazine article:
How to detect prostate cancer as early as possible and what are the treatment options?

Prostate cancer screening is preferably performed to detect prostate cancer. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform it in children and younger patients, as it does not occur before the age of 40.

Due to the relatively high incidence of prostate cancer in men in their 50s, it is advisable to have this examination.
Early detection of this disease increases the chances of survival for patients, and even at an early stage, local radiation therapy is an option.

The examination includes:

general examination of the patient
examination of the genitalia by sight
examination of the prostate gland by palpation (via the rectum)
palpation of the testicles
sonographic examination of the kidneys, urinary tract and bladder
laboratory diagnostics (blood, urine...)

Preventive examination by a gastroenterologist

The gastroenterological preventive examination is carried out in a similar way to the urological examination in patients after the age of 50, and in patients at risk after the age of 40.

The check-up is repeated every 5 years if the results are good.
In high-risk patients (bleeding, polyps, tumor) it is performed according to the doctor's office.

Read also the magazine article:
Colon cancer: causes, stages, manifestations? Diet and nutrition?

The examination material consists of stool. The presence of bleeding (even hidden - not visible to the naked eye) is detected in the stool once every 2 years.
Sending material for screening is done once every 10 years.

As such, the examination focuses not only on the presence of blood in the stool, but also on a targeted search for polyps, called precancers. These can develop into colon cancer through malignant transformation.

Polyps can be removed. A sample is taken from the tumour for histology to determine whether it is malignant or benign.

The examination includes:

examination of the rectum by sight
examination of the rectum by palpation
examination of the rectum by colonoscopy
examination of the colon by colonoscopy
laboratory diagnostics (stool examination, histology of the tissue taken)

Preventive dental check-up

The preventive dental check-up is probably one of the most well-known and the one that most patients undergo.

Read also the magazine article:
How to have healthy teeth and why is tooth decay dangerous?

The first dental check-up takes place at the age of one year, when the baby's baby teeth are erupting.

The examination includes:

examination of the teeth
periodontal examination
examination of the gums and other soft tissues of the mouth
examination of the position of the teeth and intermaxillary relationships

portal.fmed.uniba.sk - Prevention in the general practitioner's office
solen.sk - The work of a general practitioner for children and adolescents - the work of a paediatrician in the first line of contact
mudrkanuch.sk - General cancer prevention and search procedures in primary care

Bc. Lucia Sýkorová

Healthcare worker

I graduated from the Secondary Medical School and the Faculty of Medicine in Emergency Medicine. Since 2008 I have worked for 10 years in the emergency medical service as a paramedic. I am still involved in urgent pre-hospital care and emergencies as an emergency medical service operator on the emergency call line 155.

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