General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from disease

General health checks in adults for reducing morbidity and mortality from diseaseCochrane Systematic Review 31 January 2019

• General health checks involve multiple tests in a person who does not feel ill. The purpose is to find disease early, prevent disease from developing, or provide reassurance. 
• Analysis of 17 trials concludes that health checks have little or no effect on the risk of death from any cause (high‐certainty evidence), or on the risk of death from cancer (high‐certainty evidence), and probably have little or no effect on the risk of death from cardiovascular causes (moderate‐certainty evidence). Likewise, health checks have little or no effect on heart disease (high‐certainty evidence) and probably have little or no effect on stroke (moderate‐certainty evidence).