A number of healthcare organisations on Tuesday launched an online personal health check (PGC) aimed at prevention and an improvement in lifestyle.

The organisations, which include doctors’ associations NHG and LHV, council health service GGD and the diabetes, lung, kidney and heart foundations, say the personal health check is a scientific answer to the many health checks already available, which they consider to be unreliable.

The existing commercially run health checks, such as total body scans, often lead to unnecessary follow-up checks, the organisations say.

Rob Dijkstra of family doctors’ association NHG says body scans are nothing more than a snapshot. ‘Around one-third of the CT scans come up with false positives,’ he told broadcaster Nos. ‘People appear to be healthy and do not get the treatment they need, or they are given unnecessary treatment.’

Prevention

The new PGC is aimed at prevention. The organisations behind the check think people should be responsible for their own health and only make use of professional help when it is necessary.

A pilot PGC in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Leidsche Rijn was a success, local family doctor Karolien van den Brekel said. People who did the check became aware of the influence of their lifestyle on their health, she told the Nos.

The PGC, which is free, is at www.persoonlijkegezondheidscheck.nl, and provides a personalised report with lifestyle advice. Where necessary, the advice may be to make a doctor’s appointment.