Introduction

A regular comprehensive health check-up helps to access your overall health and prevent health issues that are difficult to notice. Doctors would evaluate your state of wellbeing and determine if you have any initial symptoms of a potential illness. Some diseases can be very subtle without any sign or symptom until they worsen to a certain level. Regular health check-up can effectively reduce the chance of delay in diagnosis and treatment, especially for those with unhealthy lifestyle or family history of disease.

Doctors generally recommend further evaluation such as blood sugar, lipid profiles, ECG and chest x-ray, based on age, gender, health status, family health background, lifestyle and clinical examination like weight, height, blood pressure and heart rate. During the health check-up, samples such as blood, saliva, urine or feces would be collected and sent to laboratories for further testing and investigation.

Preparation

If you feel any abnormalities before the check-up, it is recommended to drop it down and discuss with your doctor during the check-up session. This allows your doctor to learn more about your health condition and recommend the relevant testing items. The following are the information you need for health check-up:

• Clinical history: your doctor will regularly update your medical record for future reference at each health check-up. They take note of previous preventive procedures such as pap tests, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, immunizations etc.
• Family history of diseases: This is important for your doctor to know because it gives them an idea about the diseases that are hereditary in your family.
• Past medical history: your doctor will review all your past medications and medical procedures such as surgeries.
• Lifestyle information: working style, where you work, living conditions at home and work-life balance in general. These little things can have a massive implication on your health.
• Habits: use of the recreational drug, smoking, active lifestyle, sexual habits etc.
• Normal body function information: your daily body functions such as sleeping, eating, bowel movements, hearing, vision etc.
• Physical examination: necessary for people who have symptoms of a disease. However, it cannot be used as a screening test for healthy individuals with no complaints.

Regular Composition

Based on your preliminary examination, your doctor may recommend further tests. A comprehensive health check-up usually consists of blood and urine tests, x-ray, ultrasonography, lungs function test, and cardiac test. In order to further understand your health, some tests are used to diagnose, screen, and monitor a particular disease or condition; others are used to examine the status of different organs and systems. Here are some of the tests that make up a regular health check-up:

• General physical exam including weight, height, blood pressure, pulse rate etc.
• Blood tests and haemogram that determine infections, anemia, or onset of other diseases
• Lipid profile helps in assessing cardiovascular risk
• Liver function tests assess the functioning of liver or diagnose liver diseases
• Kidney function tests evaluate the proper functioning of kidneys
• Blood sugar measures blood glucose levels to identify diabetes or pre-diabetes
• Chest x-ray studies the chest and the organs located in the area
• ECG helps in determining the heart rate and uniformity of heartbeat.
• Ultrasonography studies the structures in the abdomen such as spleen, gall bladder, liver, pancreas and kidneys
• Urine examination is conducted for general assessment of health in terms of systemic or metabolic diseases.

Important Notes

You may need to avoid urinating, fast, abstinence before check-up, depending on the testing items. Please check with your doctor or health care provider for details.