
5 Things About Wellness and Screening
This Thanksgiving, as families gather around the table, health and wellness should be a topic of discussion.
This Thanksgiving, as families gather around the table, health and wellness should be a topic of discussion. This is the ideal time to discuss family genetics and get a better understanding of what health risks you might face. Topics of sickness and advanced care planning may not seem like ideal family dinner conversation, but they will better prepare you and your loved ones for any surprises down the road.
Here are 5 things to know about health, wellness, and screening.
1. Family history impacts screening recommendations.
In recent years, genetic testing for screening has seen tremendous development and gained public attention,
While the American Cancer Society (ACS) is
Similarly, while research suggests delaying prostate cancer screening in men until after age 55 years, men with a family history of
2. Screening indeterminately for diseases is not helpful.
The reason why screening recommendations differentiate individuals with average risk and with high risk is because screening asymptomatic patients
A study from Harvard and Dartmouth found that widespread use of screening mammography increases the chances of detecting small cancers that may not be clinically relevant. In fact, increased screening results in overdiagnosis
3. Employers are really investing in wellness programs.
As the focus in healthcare begins to shift to prevention, more and more employers are offering wellness programs to improve employee health. Fidelity Investments and the National Business Group on Health
Employers are even willing to shell out money to increase wellness program participation. RAND researchers
4. Employees either lack of awareness or don’t take advantage of wellness programs.
Despite these efforts, uptake of wellness programs seems to be lacking so far. While access to wellness programs is on the rise, employees may not be aware of them.
Even when wellness programs use apps, employees
5. It is not clear whether wellness programs are really helping.
At the end of the day, it’s still not even clear if these wellness programs actually help. Corporate weight control programs
Austin Frakt, PhD, a health economist and researcher,
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