India’s healthcare industry is undergoing a speedy transformative process as it adopts advanced technology and innovative approaches to help people manage their health in a more affordable and convenient manner. Across the world, preventive healthcare continues to become a crucial area of focus and India is very well on-board.
A Harvard University report from earlier this year deemed India as the fastest growing economy in the world with a predicted growth of 7.9 percent annually, crossing China and the USA. This silver lining, of course, has a dark cloud and that cloud is the increased rate of chronic lifestyle diseases such as cancers, heart diseases, mental health issues, diabetes, hormonal imbalances etc., that have their roots in the fast-paced lifestyles that we Indians seem to embrace.
What Is Preventive Healthcare?
So, what exactly is Preventive Health and how does it step into the big picture?
Preventive health is all about screening for illness or disease before you have or display any signs of it. It helps in the diagnosis of a disease early on so they can be stopped in their tracks or prevented from occurring. Simply put, preventive healthcare helps identify the overall health and any possible issues before they grow to pose a larger threat.
Types of Preventive Healthcare
Preventive Health tests can be of various types including seeing your physician once a year for a master health check-up, getting a cancer screening, or an eye exam. The easiest way to go about practicing preventive health is to get a mandatory physical exam on a yearly basis. Some basic determiners of which screenings or tests one should opt for is their age, health, and sex.
Why Is Preventive Healthcare Important?
Many of the high-risk factors that lead to various illnesses are preventable. According to WHO’s estimate, almost 60-70{3e33652c8fb52349a8e2361326701ee913286584a7968348450c0009732361a3} of diseases are preventable with timely assessment and intervention. With a comprehensive preventive care program, one can control these risk factors and lower their odds of disease or premature death effectively.
For example, a cardiac arrest may not be a sudden occurrence. It can be the result of a gradual accumulation of cholesterol in blood vessels. A regular health check-up can enable you to make the necessary diet changes to reduce fat intake.
Preventive care helps one maintain optimal health and access prompt treatment if or when the need arises; this also allows one to be fiscally independent by lowering the long-term cost of managing or treating most diseases by diagnosing them in their early stages.
Due to hectic schedules and a fast-paced lifestyle, healthcare takes a backseat for most people, the result of which is developed conditions that can be debilitating if not fatal, unless intervened in time. In the past decade, however, India has seen an increased adoption of monitoring fitness devices for the ease and convenience that they offer as opposed to regular visits at hospitals or labs.
With an increasing percentage of the younger generation experiencing cardiac diseases, hypertension, and diabetes, preventive healthcare seems to be on the rise as people become more aware and pay heed to health-conscious choices.
Moreover, this is pushing the healthcare industry to propel in a progressive manner by adopting advanced and innovative medical technologies that can offer top-notch diagnosis and efficient treatment at affordable rates.