The NHS Health Check is currently achieving minuscule improvements in health, according to a major new study.
Researchers concluded that it reduced the ten-year risk of cardiovascular disease by just 0.21% – the equivalent of one cardiovascular event for every 4,762 people attending a check-up.
The Health Check is offered every five years to people aged between 40 and 74 and was launched in 2009.
Researchers at Imperial College, London, studied outcomes for some 138,788 people over a two year period for the study, reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
They found the average reduction in body mass index was just 0.27. There was a 2.51 reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 1.46 reduction in diastolic pressure.
There was an average reduction in cholesterol levels of 0.15 mmol/L.
Researchers found that just 21% of those who were invited attended appointments. And just 40% of those found to be at high risk of cardiovascular disease ended up with a prescription of statins.
The researchers say further analysis may suggest ways of improving the programme.
Researcher Professor Azeem Majeed said: "For the NHS Health Check scheme to be effective, it needs to be better planned and implemented – our work will help highlight how this can be done. In future we plan to evaluate whether particular groups – for instance older patients – have greater health benefits from the check than younger patients.
"It would also be interesting to investigate the reasons why the health check produced such modest benefits. For instance, to evaluate the advice patients are given during the health check."
The British Heart Foundation said the key challenge was to improve the numbers attending health checks.
Associate medical director Dr Mike Knapton said: “This important study suggests that the NHS Health Check Programme is delivering some modest health gains in reducing people’s risk of cardiovascular disease, which accounts for about a quarter of all deaths in the UK.
“However, we need to do more to improve the numbers of patients attending these health checks. We also need to ensure that all patients are given the best advice and treatment in the management of conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol if we are to significantly reduce the burden of preventable diseases.
Kiara Chu-Mei Chang et al. Impact of the National Health Service Health Check on cardiovascular disease risk: a difference-in-differences matching analysis. Canadian Medical Association Journal 2 May 2016
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