Rethinking the Habits of Self-Diagnosing and Skipping Regular Checkups

We have all heard the saying “prevention is better than cure” but what good is the phrase if we are not having routine health checkups?. For some reason, most people be it in a developed country or developing country, do not like or want to go to the hospital. In general, people have their reasons for not wanting to go to the hospital when they do not feel well. Some of these reasons could be no health insurance/out-of-pocket payment, distance, and accessibility. However, even those who have access and can afford healthcare do not like going to the hospital as well.

I do not want to sound stereotypical but over the years I noticed that most Africans have the habit of self-diagnosing when not feeling well and not going for routine checkups. Self-diagnosing is when we diagnose our illness and do not seek medical attention for their symptoms. Rather than heading to the hospital for a consultation, most stay at home and cook up their home remedy concoctions. Or better still most go to the pharmacy and describe their symptoms to the pharmacist for them to prescribe over-the-counter medications.

I have had instances where I had to force some of my friends who ironically happen to be nurses to go for consultation when they were not feeling well. Some of these nurses, doctors, and public health professionals are good at preaching but not taking heed to their advice. Routine health checkups are not a common practice for most in developing countries including me. Going to the hospital if one is not seriously ill is seen as a waste of money and time for most.

While bad habits are hard to break, our mentalities and attitudes towards this issue need to change. We need to rethink our habits of self-diagnosing and skipping routine health checkups. How often we go for routine checkups will vary from person to person. Our health risk factors, screening test results, and health status will help our doctors determine how often to have regular checkups.

I recommend having routine checkups at least once a year. Regular checkups will detect problems early, allowing more time for treatment, reducing healthcare costs over time, and eventually improve our health. Let us not take our health for granted. There is no excuse for this especially for those people that have the means, and have access to hospitals.