TY - JOUR T1 - General health checks may not reduce morbidity or mortality but do increase the number of new diagnoses JF - Evidence Based Nursing JO - Evid Based Nurs SP - 111 LP - 112 DO - 10.1136/eb-2012-101158 VL - 16 IS - 4 AU - Azeem Majeed AU - Ricky Banarsee Y1 - 2013/10/01 UR - http://ebn.bmj.com/content/16/4/111.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Krogsbøll LT, Jørgensen KJ, Grønhøj Larsen C, et al . General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;10:CD009009. General health checks aim to detect risk factors and diseases in healthy people, with the aim of either preventing a disease from developing, or treating a disease earlier in its course. A systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of general health checks found that they did not reduce morbidity or mortality, but did increase the number of new diagnoses. The burden of non-communicable disease such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease is increasing worldwide.1 These diseases all share risk factors that include smoking, hypertension, obesity, physical inactivity and hyperglycaemia. Their prevention, early identification and effective management could have major public health and economic benefits, and this has led to renewed interest … ER -