NHS Health Check

The UK's NHS, outside of it's vaccination and screening programmes, traditionally has not, like most health services (national, public or private) focussed on preventative medicine. A positive sign that this is changing is the NHS Health Check.

The NHS health check attempts to detect the early signs of a number of chronic diseases such as;

• diabetes
• heart disease
• kidney disease
• stroke

The NHS health check is done with adults without any known pre-existing conditions, aged between 40 to 74, every five years. GPs and local councils are responsible for inviting people to a health check and they are carried out by a trained healthcare professional such as a pharmacist, nurse or healthcare assistant.

Measurements taken include;

• height and weight (to calculate your BMI)
• waist circumference
• blood pressure
• blood cholesterol levels (finger-prick test)

These measurements, along with lifestyle information provided by the service user around family medical history, smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activities levels are used to provide the user with a cardiovascular risk score of low, medium or high. Targetted advice is also provided on lifestyle changes and further services available that may help them lower their risk and avoid contracting the most prevalent chronic diseases detailed earlier.