Arulselvan G, Chidambaram S, George N, Rizvana S, Narayan P, Annamalai P, Vadakaraiyan PHR, Rajagopal N, Dharmaraj RB, M T. Preventive Health Checkup: Utilization, Motivators, and Barriers Among the General Population in a Rural District in Tamil Nadu, India.
Cureus 2024;
16:e52529. [PMID:
38371042 PMCID:
PMC10874466 DOI:
10.7759/cureus.52529]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/20/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The main goals of preventive health care include the early detection of disease by screening, identifying and reducing disease risk factors, and improving the current disease processes. Moreover, early disease discovery in the latent stage facilitates prompt intervention, reducing morbidity and death.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the proportion of people who have availed preventive health check-ups in Perambalur and to determine the motivators and barriers to health check-ups among adults (age group: 18 years and above).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional study among the general population from September 2021 to November 2021. A total of 436 participants were included in the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the socio-demographic characteristics and preventive health check-up details, along with the motivators and barriers. The data were entered in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA), and analysis was done using SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY).
RESULT
The mean ± SD of the age of the general population was 52.27 ± 21.09. Out of 436 participants, only 130 (29.82%) had undergone preventive health check-ups in the past. The subjects with young age (p = 0.006), those who obtained COVID-19 vaccination (p = 0.001), subjects with stable occupation (p = 0.002), and those with higher education (p < 0.001) (chi-square test) had preventive health check-ups. A significant association was found between motivators and barriers for age, gender, education, occupation, marital status, the presence of comorbidities, and vaccination status against COVID-19.
CONCLUSION
Preventive health check-up is still not up the ladder of health care for the general population. The health programmes should orient the public towards the concept of individual responsibility in health.
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