Over 40 NHS Health Check: Increasing Awareness on Women’s Healthcare.

Earlier this year, I encouraged us to include healthcare to our 2021 to-do-list. On top of my list was the all-important 40 and over NHS health-check; I turned 40 last month! It has been exciting and also the time to start taking my healthcare actively serious. This short blog post is to create awareness and encourage the amazing healthy ebony women who are still on the fence to consider having their health-checks done.

It is a path I have not walked before, I am unsure of what I would discover at the end of it, so are some others who are in their 4th decade. One certainty is, this journey will not be ignored, because ignorance does not halt potential age-related illnesses from occurring; hiding away or not prioritising it will only lead to unpreparedness.

This inattention can potentially give room for these preventable illnesses to take over our entire lives, hence adversely affecting our careers, finances, family and hinder us from enjoying the life that was meant to begin at forty! In as much as we do not fully know what the screening outcome will be, being equipped with information and knowing the process is important.

I knew of someone who sadly passed away recently, aged 45 years old, from a heart attack. This person had uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure. People live with diabetes and high blood pressure without knowing because they “feel well”, however “feeling well” does not stop the diseases from progressing and eventually causing complications, which was what happened in this instance.

This individual did not fully engage with the healthcare professionals, despite several attempts to get them in for needed tests and medication reviews. When asked why, the response was “it was due to work and family commitment”. Unfortunately, this person developed cardiac chest pain, had emergency surgeries but it was way too late and passed away within 2 weeks of presentation. This here broke my heart knowing fully well this loss could have been prevented.

Deputy Chief Nurse for Public Health England, Jamie Waterall, whose background is in Cardiology, mentioned that 90% of heart attack incidences in those aged below 75 years that presented to accident and emergency could have been avoided.

How? The NHS health check screening has been set up to prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney diseases. This is offered to anyone aged between 40 and 74 years in the UK who have not been diagnosed with any cardiovascular diseases.

Why age 40 years? As we get older the risks of developing any cardiovascular diseases become higher, however, I would like to slide this in:

In the United Kingdom, according to the British Heart Foundation, being South Asian, African or African Caribbean increases the  risk of developing  cardiovascular diseases as well diabetes in comparison to the white Europeans.
Additionally, a CDC report mentions, black adults aged 20 and over are most likely to have hypertension, diabetes and be obese.

Data from 2012-2018 recorded by the NHS UK in 2019 showed:

1.       54% of those who completed the NHS health checks were female and 46% male.

2.       52.1% of those who did not attend were male and 47.9% were female.

3.       65-69-year-olds had the highest attendance rate of 54.5% while 40-44-year-olds had the lowest attendance rate of 35.9%.

4.       4.1% of the total patients attending their checks during this period were Africans and or African-Caribbeans compared to 8.9% Asians.

In my clinical practise, I am increasingly seeing younger black patients with established high blood pressure, similarly, type 2 diabetes. This is particularly true for those with strong family history and associated at-risk lifestyle choices. In this instance, I will not wait till I turn 40 years old to check my risk level.

The Process of the health check involves simple steps which can be lifesaving starting with an invitation to attend an appointment with your local General Practice Nurse, this takes approximately 30 minutes, (there is a similar health screening in the US which can be accessed via your family doctor, similarly, for those in Nigeria)

During the appointment:
1.      Your personal history will be taken which will including age, ethnicity, smoking status, physical activity level and family history.
2.      Blood tests to cover these basic checks: serum cholesterol, blood glucose, HBA1C (glycated haemoglobin), fasting glucose. Further tests may be included based on the outcome of the personal history, including renal (kidney) function test.
3.     Your blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) will be done.

For anyone discovered to be at risk of developing any cardiovascular diseases, appropriate advice will be given on lifestyle modifications to diet, increasing physical exercise, weight management and reducing alcohol consumption.

Before you go, why not check your cardiovascular risk level here; do not forget to sign up to the Healthy Ebony Woman (HEW) newsletters and follow us on Instagram @healthyebonywoman for in-depth discussions on how to tackle individual risk factors. You may also find this article useful, where I discussed the top three risk factors to hypertension for black women.

You remain amazing always!