Preventative health screening test - Essay Example

Preventive Health Screening Introduction There is a growing trend among the young adults of undergoing preventive health screening test. Screening for the identification of identifiable diseases in the young and tender age of adolescence provides the individual with relief from these diseases in the long run. Owing to the usefulness and benefits of preventive health screening, it is readily adopted as a preventive measure. This paper discusses the objective, types and importance of preventive health screening for young adolescents.

Objective of Screening Screening services are offered for various kinds of diseases including abdominal aortic aneurysm, heart disease risk, stroke, peripheral arterial disease and breast cancer. The objective of preventive health screening for a certain disease is the identification of traces of its symptoms at early stages when it is more treatable than late. There are several ways of preventive health screening that can be used for such purposes that include but are not limited to mammography, clinical examination, and self-examination.

The way of preventive health screening suitable in a particular case depends upon the size and severity of the symptoms. For example, in the case of screening for breast cancer, self-examination may suffice when the breast tumors can be felt because of their size. In other cases, when they are too small to be felt, mammography is more suitable as a method of preventive health screening than self-examination. Types of Screening There are numerous types of screenings available for the young adults including the traditional film mammography, magnetic resonance imaging, and digital mammography (annals.org, 2009).

The type of screening options varies from one disease to another. For example, to screen test a patient for the carotid artery disease, the patient is asked to lie on the back, so that gel can be applied to the neck. The technologist moves the transducer over the neck which generates pictures of the carotid arteries along with the blood flow rate in them. Importance of Screening Owing to the usefulness of preventive health screening in minimizing an individual’s susceptibility to various kinds of diseases, its importance cannot be overemphasized.

The research of USPSTF found that the usefulness of preventive screening is not quite as much for women between 40 and 49 years of age as it is for women in other age groups than that. There are certain harms of mammography like the cost of treatment for the disease when the results are false-positive and the anxiety that the patient goes through. Women aged between 40 and 49 years may not routinely get screening mammography, but those between 50 and 74 years of age need the preventive health screening once every two years.

Benefits of preventive health screening are particularly more for the young adolescents as the disease can be identified in very premature stage which leads to early, effective and cost effective treatment. Conclusion Preventive health screening is an effective way of reducing young adolescents’ susceptibility to diseases later in life. Types of preventive heath screening include self-examination, clinical examination, and mammography. Of the three, mammography is the most useful type of preventive health screening.

Preventive health screening is important as a precautionary measure for better health. References: annals.org. (2009). Screening for Breast Cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.annals.org/content/151/10/I-44.full.pdf.