What is the difference between preventive care and physical examination?

In essence, physical examination is a standardized screening link in the preventive health care system, while preventive health care is a collection of health interventions covering the entire life cycle. The two are included and included, but what ordinary people are most likely to confuse is that in fact, the scenes and core goals of the two are completely different.

Last week, I met Aunt Zhang when I was attending a consultation at the community health service center. She had just spent more than 10,000 yuan to get a high-end package at a private medical examination institution. All the imaging and blood test indicators were within the normal range. She originally thought she was in great health, so she came to prescribe some sleep aids, so we gave her a After routine TCM physical examination, it was discovered that she already had a typical Yang-deficiency constitution. She had cold hands and feet all year round and woke up easily in the middle of the night. If it took another year or two, she would be prone to joint degeneration and thyroid dysfunction. These potential risks were blind spots that were not covered by routine physical examinations. The core logic of physical examination is to catch "pathological abnormalities that have already occurred", such as nodules exceeding a certain size, blood sugar exceeding the critical value, and liver function indicators deviating from the normal range. These are all problems that have reached the clinical diagnosis threshold. To put it bluntly, it is to "troubleshoot" the body to confirm whether you have any existing symptoms.

Many people think that having a complete physical examination is equivalent to doing preventive care. This is not the case. The scope of preventive health care is much broader. The physical identification just mentioned is one of them. There are also low-salt dietary guidance for people at high risk of hypertension, weekly group walking, pit and fissure sealing for primary school students who have just had their teeth replaced, folic acid supplements for couples preparing for pregnancy, eugenics and nurturing guidance, and even your own daily routine. Consciously avoid staying up late at night or drinking high-sugar milk tea. These proactive health intervention behaviors actually belong to the category of preventive health care. Its goal is to nip the signs of illness before it develops into organic disease. It is equivalent to doing "daily care" for the body and reducing the probability of illness from the root cause.

There are actually different opinions on the boundary between the two in the industry. Many clinical doctors believe that only standardized physical examinations that have been verified by evidence-based medicine can be regarded as effective health intervention. Many lifestyle guidance and traditional Chinese medicine conditioning that are not supported by clear clinical data are considered "ineffective health care", but we Most front-line practitioners in public health do not agree with this statement. The data of residents in the jurisdiction that our center has tracked for 5 years shows that continuous dietary and exercise intervention for people at high risk of hypertension can reduce the incidence of hypertension in this group of people by 32%. This effect is actually much better than waiting for blood pressure to exceed the standard and then taking medicine to control it.

To use an inappropriate analogy, a physical examination is like the annual inspection you do for your car every year. It checks whether the brakes are working properly, the exhaust gas is not up to standard, and whether there are any damaged parts. It can detect problems in time to avoid breaking down halfway.； Preventive care is the small maintenance you usually do on your car, adding regular oil, and not slamming on the accelerator and braking when driving, which can extend the service life of your car and reduce the probability of failure. For us ordinary people, we cannot think that everything will be fine if we have a physical examination once a year. We usually eat and drink and stay up late and ignore it. Nor can we just rely on taking health products and doing conditioning and skip regular physical examinations. Only by combining the two can we really take our health into our own hands.