The 75 Year+ Health Check is a golden opportunity for both you and your doctor to spend time going through an in-depth assessment of your health and well-being every year. The aim of course is to keep you in tip top physical and psychological health so you can get on with the important business of living an independent and fulfilling life.
We often hear from our older patients that they are concerned about the “memory test” aspect of the check. Yes, checking cognition is an important part of the assessment but is also a very small part of it. The reasons for checking cognition (which is more than just memory) include the fact that identifying a change EARLY may give us the chance to intervene and halt, slow or even reverse the progression. All of which is to say, your cognition may be perfectly fine and you’ll be pleasantly surprised and relieved!
Mostly though, the 75 Year+ Health Check gives us the opportunity to spend time looking at aspects of your health and well-being that we may otherwise not have time to do. Things like nutrition, sleep, mobility and falls prevention (see the in-depth article in our last newsletter on this important topic), feet (yes, feet! An important cause of poor mobility if problems aren’t detected early), social supports, immunisations and much, much more.
But don’t just take our word for it. Studies looking at the effects of these check-ups for older Australians have reported encouraging results: an improvement in self-rated health and quality of life, reduction in depression score and a reduced number of falls.
So, if you are aged 75 and up and have been putting it off, please don’t be concerned, this check-up really can improve your health and well-being.
Photo by Ravi Patel on Unsplash