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Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether Danish providers of general health checks present a balanced account of possible benefits and harms on their websites and whether the health checks are evidence-based. METHODS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. The search engines Google and Jubii (Danish) were in Ju...

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Autores principales: Grønhøj Larsen, Christian, Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl, Gøtzsche, Peter C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3316492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22479429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033694
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author Grønhøj Larsen, Christian
Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl
Gøtzsche, Peter C.
author_facet Grønhøj Larsen, Christian
Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl
Gøtzsche, Peter C.
author_sort Grønhøj Larsen, Christian
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether Danish providers of general health checks present a balanced account of possible benefits and harms on their websites and whether the health checks are evidence-based. METHODS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. The search engines Google and Jubii (Danish) were in July and August 2009 used to identify 56 websites using Danish search terms for “health check” and “health examination”. The content of the websites were evaluated using a checklist with 15 officially recommended information items. All tests offered through the websites were registered. The evidence for tests offered through at least 10% of the websites was identified in structured searches using PubMed and The Cochrane Library. RESULTS: We found 36 different tests on 56 websites offering health checks. Twenty one tests were offered on at least 10% of the websites. Seventeen (81%) of these tests were unsupported by evidence, or there was evidence against them for screening purposes. We found evidence supporting screening using body-mass-index, blood pressure, cholesterol, and faecal occult blood testing. None of the websites mentioned possible risks or harms. The websites presented a median of 1 of the 15 information items; the highest number from any provider was 2. CONCLUSIONS: Information from Danish providers of health checks was sparse and tests were often offered against existing evidence or despite lack of evidence. None of the included websites mentioned potential risks or harms.
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spelling pubmed-33164922012-04-04 Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey Grønhøj Larsen, Christian Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl Gøtzsche, Peter C. PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether Danish providers of general health checks present a balanced account of possible benefits and harms on their websites and whether the health checks are evidence-based. METHODS AND DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. The search engines Google and Jubii (Danish) were in July and August 2009 used to identify 56 websites using Danish search terms for “health check” and “health examination”. The content of the websites were evaluated using a checklist with 15 officially recommended information items. All tests offered through the websites were registered. The evidence for tests offered through at least 10% of the websites was identified in structured searches using PubMed and The Cochrane Library. RESULTS: We found 36 different tests on 56 websites offering health checks. Twenty one tests were offered on at least 10% of the websites. Seventeen (81%) of these tests were unsupported by evidence, or there was evidence against them for screening purposes. We found evidence supporting screening using body-mass-index, blood pressure, cholesterol, and faecal occult blood testing. None of the websites mentioned possible risks or harms. The websites presented a median of 1 of the 15 information items; the highest number from any provider was 2. CONCLUSIONS: Information from Danish providers of health checks was sparse and tests were often offered against existing evidence or despite lack of evidence. None of the included websites mentioned potential risks or harms. Public Library of Science 2012-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3316492/ /pubmed/22479429 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033694 Text en Grønhøj Larsen et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Grønhøj Larsen, Christian
Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl
Gøtzsche, Peter C.
Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title_full Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title_fullStr Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title_full_unstemmed Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title_short Regular Health Checks: Cross-Sectional Survey
title_sort regular health checks: cross-sectional survey
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3316492/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22479429
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033694
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