What is the difference between preventive care and physical examination

The core difference between the two is that the underlying logic is completely different - physical examination is a "cut-off point-based investigation of existing problems", while preventive care is "full-cycle intervention in potential risks". To put it bluntly, one is responsible for finding problems that have already developed, and the other is responsible for preventing problems from growing.

Last week I met a 32-year-old Internet operator at the community public health clinic. Every year, the physical examination report organized by the work unit is all green, and all indicators are within the normal range. However, after staying up for three days last week, he suddenly suffered from low potassium and fainted and was sent to the emergency room. Follow-up tests found no organic problems. It was just staying up late for a long time, relying on takeaways heavy in oil and salt for meals, and the problem was caused by insufficient potassium intake and excessive loss. For these small critical problems, routine physical examinations such as blood routine and liver and kidney function will not specifically remind you of low indicators within the threshold. By the time the values ​​really fall out of the normal range, people have already suffered. If he had received targeted preventive care before and we had asked him about his occupation and work and rest habits in advance, we would have reminded him to eat more potassium-rich foods such as bananas and edamame, and to get up and move for two minutes every hour to prevent him from fainting.

In fact, the industry has discussed the boundary between the two before. Some scholars believe that preventive health care in a broad sense includes physical examinations and does not need to be divided too finely. However, most of us who work in public health on the front line feel that the boundary must be clearly drawn. Otherwise, ordinary people will easily fall into the misunderstanding that "having a physical examination every year means that their health is guaranteed." Instead, they will ignore daily health maintenance.

I usually give an analogy to the residents who come for consultation. A physical examination is like the annual inspection of a car every year. What is checked is whether the brakes are not working properly on the day of the inspection, whether the exhaust gas meets the standard, and whether there are any problems that no longer meet the road standards. Passing the annual inspection only means that there is nothing wrong with your car on that day. It means that it will not break down if you build it as hard or as hard as you want in the next year; preventive care means adding regular gasoline, changing the engine oil every 5,000 kilometers, and checking the tire pressure before running on the highway. These actions are all adjusted according to your car usage habits, and you will not wait for the annual inspection to find problems before you think about remedying them.

Just like the services provided by our community for the elderly over 65 years old, the annual free physical examination is a prescribed action. Last month, an aunt found that her fasting blood sugar was 6.3mmol/L, which is just at the critical value of abnormal glucose tolerance. The process of the physical examination is to issue a report to mark the abnormality and remind her to recheck in half a month. The preventive health care action is our family The doctor came to her home right away and asked her about her usual habit of eating porridge and pickles. He changed the ratio of thick and thin staple foods to her, taught her 10 minutes of hypoglycemic exercises that she could do at home, and followed up with her once a week to measure her fingertip blood. After more than a month of adjustments, her blood sugar has returned to the normal range of 5.8mmol/L, and she does not need to take medicine to control her sugar.

To put it bluntly, there is no need to separate the two. A physical examination is a high-definition snapshot of your health, which can only reflect your physical condition during a short period of time. Preventive care is a long-term follow-up vlog of your health. It keeps an eye on your daily habits and slowly adjusts them. Only by combining the two can you really take your health into your own hands.