A Cross Section Survey Assessment Study on the Knowledge and Practice of Periodic Medical Check up among the Saudi population

Periodic Medical Check-up or Routine Medical Checkup (RMC) is a regular primary care process provided by health care facilities for all people of different ages through history taking and physical examination and laboratory investigation for non- complaining individuals. RMC is helpful and effective to discover new cases and prevent major complications to early intervention but also might be dangerous because all types of medical screening can cause harm. A well‐ known example is false‐positive test can lead to more invasive diagnostic test. Also false‐negative results may lead to a false sense of wellbeing and delay medical intervention when needed. And over-diagnosis can cause latent cancers or carcinoma in situ. (RMC) any variation in the health of individuals is observed and handled in the form of curative or preventive duties or follow–up. Many non-communicable diseases (NCD) as hypertension, breast cancer, cervical cancer, diabetes mellitus and prostate cancer. Currently ailments like obesity, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarctions and stroke, oncological disease can be detected ¹. It’s necessary to conduct a periodic medical examination to reduce chronic diseases, because every year, 9 million people less than 60 years old die in the worldwide because of NCD ¹. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) the population suffers from high incidence of preventable chronic illness and most of them is top risk factor that’s leads to death or disability ^{2, 3, 4, 5} which have a burden that affects socially and economically and represents more than 60% of the global burden of disease. A comprehensive medical examination on a regular basis helps to prevent future illness ²

1-This study was aimed to assess the awareness of periodic medical check-up and practice among Saudi Arabia.

2- To evaluate the relation between the periodic medical check-up and reduce the incidence of health complication

1- Know and analyze the main factors that leads to decrease commitment to periodic medical check-up ^{3, 4}

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Saudi community used to assess the awareness of periodic medical checks-up among Saudi and Non-Saudi people. The total number of participants was 1015 of both gender and the age was arranged into different stages. Data collection sources were given an online survey in the Arabic language and we were distribute the online questioner by social media platform and email. On the first page of survey link, it included brief information about our Research and confirmed to participant all the information keeps it confidential and anonymity were ensured all participants participated voluntarily. After completed the survey we translated to English language to the questionnaire was multiple choice and included two sections. First section contained socio demographic data (Gender, age, marital status, educational level, occupations).

And second section was evaluate the knowledge of participants about RMC, ( have you ever had routine checkup , do you regularly checkup , frequency of medical checkup, types of checkup known , causes of poor implementation of periodic medical checkup , any improvement during medical checkup ,any complications because lack of periodic medical checkup, is it helpful to discover early problem). And the research investigation was approved by IBN SINA NATIONAL COLLEGE. Institutional Human Ethics Committee (H-02-03062021), protocol identification number is 002SRC31052021. The study was carried out for 3 months 'in duration. Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS20.00 was employed to analyze the collected data for the evaluation

A total participant 1015 but we were received only 983 answers due to missing or skip response (n=32),we were replaced by the mean values in software SPSS.

Based on survey result the socio demographic characteristics of the participants were shown in Table 1. In age standard deviation was (1,618) and most of the participants were in age group 21-30 years (29.9%), then 41-50 years (23.3%), then 51-60 years (19.3%). Then group 31-40 years then group of age less than 20 years (10.3%) and least≥60years (6.1%). In gender standard deviation was (4.527%) and the number of females 796 (78.4%) were significantly higher than male 219 (21.6%). the marital status were mostly is married people (64.2%) then single people (27.3%), divorced (4.5%), widower (3.9 %). The education levels were most of participants were University education (65.9%), followed by secondary (23.3%), postgraduate (5.8%), intermediate (3.4%), elementary (1.1%) and lastly illiterate (0.4%). In the occupation part (31.4%) were unemployed, (22.4%) in educational sector , (15.75%) retired (11.9%) in private sector, (8.9%) Medical sector, others (6.3%), government sector (3.4%). When we asked about the chronic disease most of participants answered they did not have chronic disease.

In Table 2, About the frequency of periodic medical check-up most of participants did checkups every six months (46.9%) , the second largest participants did check-ups yearly (35.0%), only 81 (8.0%) had check-ups every two years, and the 103 (10.1%) of population didn’t know when checkups. Then we asked about types of periodic medical check-up known the most of the participants know general examination 479 (47.7%), only 10 (1.0%) know visual checkup, the known check blood sugar were (4.2%) and know blood pressure check (1.7%), and know dental check (2.6%) the second largest participants know all the above checkups (43.4%). Causes of poor implantation of periodic medical check-up, most of the participants didn’t get regular checkup because low socio-economic class 409 (40.3%) , the second largest participants cause far away (33%), only other cases (4.5%), the cause of lack primary health care (22.2%).

In Table 3, when we asked the participants about have you ever had a routine medical check-up (42.1% ) choose yes (57.8%) choose No. Also When we asked the participants when periodic medical check-up is done we were find there was not a big difference between participants who choose they do routine check-up when they feel well (43.9%) and who choose doing it during illness (40.8%) some of participants choose other causes (15.2%). about the regularity of periodic medical check-up most of the participants don’t regularly do medical check-up (78.1%) while (21.9%) do. Who choose they do routine check-up when they feel well (43.9%) and who choose doing it during illness ( 40.8%) some of participants choose other causes (15.2%) . about the regularity of periodic medical check-up Most of the participants don’t regularly do medical check-up (78.1%) while (21.9%) do.

Most of participants choose (I am not a regular in my periodic medical check-up 71.6%)

The second largest participants choose yes. They notice improvement in their health level during regular check-up (22.0%), only (6.4%) choose No.

58% choose no they didn't notice any complications because of lack of commitment in periodic medical check-up and 41.7% choose yes.

Most of participants choose yes the periodic medical check-up help them to discover health problems early and treat them (61.0%). 39.0% and other group of people choose no.

We asked about the improvement during regular periodic medical check-up Most of participants choose (I am not a regular in my periodic medical check-up 71.6%) the second largest participants choose yes. They notice improvement in their health level during regular check-up (22.0%), only (6.4%) choose No. about the complication due to lack of periodic medical check-up 58% choose no, they didn't notice any complications because of lack of commitment in periodic medical check-up. And 41.7% choose yes. For, is it help to discover newly health problem, most of participants choose yes the periodic medical check-up help them to discover health problems early and treat them (61.0%) and 39.0% other group of people choose no. Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3

Figure 1.Frequency of Medical check-up or not?

Figure 2.Types of medical check-up known

Figure 3.What do you think causes of poor implantation periodic medical check-up

In KSA they found high rate of un-diagnostic and diagnostic chronic disease this study was planned to investigate the causes of low uptake of RMC and try to modify the causes among Saudi population (LOW –UPTAKE). ^{5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}

In this study, periodic medical check-up is one of the most important tool of preventive medicine used to detect early diseases. An enormous response of more than 1000 was been achieved and a sample of 1015 was studied using the chi-test to calculate the p-value and an average significance of 0.5% was achieved. The most active participation was observed from the age group (21-30 years) and female participants outnumbered the male. The highly prevalence of low uptake of the periodic medical check-up despite high level of awareness (RMC) among Saudi population as its highly associated with low socio-economic class and far away. We recommended increase number of primary care to use periodic medical check-up and identify the disease and prevent complication. This study also shows that it is highly essential to recommend for conducting campaign in schools and universities and other activities as an annual medical check-ups camps. The early detection of any disease can serve as a boon in controlling many diseases at its acute early stages rather than leading to the chronic life threatening diseases. This, study thus suggests the need of conducting the routine medical check-ups to eliminate the adverse life threatening complications due to many diseases. Though, the awareness among the community regarding the periodic medical check-up is excellent but the need for the practical implementation is lacking and the studies similar to this needs to be conducted on regular basis to analyze the developments in the future.

All authors have made substantial contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

None

We would like to acknowledge Ibn Sina National College, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for their constant support.

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