General practice -based health checks are associated with statistically significant , albeit clinical ly small , improvements in surrogate outcome control , especially among high-risk patients .
BACKGROUND A recent review concluded that general health checks fail to reduce mortality in adults .
AIM This review focuses on general practice -based health checks and their effects on both surrogate and final outcomes .
Effect of population screening for type 2 diabetes on mortality: long-term follow-up of the Ely cohort
Aims /hypothesisThe aim of this study was to assess the impact of invitation to screening for type 2 diabetes and related cardiovascular risk factors on population mortality .  Methods This was a parallel-group population -based cohort study including all men and women aged 40–65 years , free of known diabetes , registered with a single practice in Ely , UK ( n = 4,936 ) . In 1990–1992 , approximately one-third ( n = 1,705 ) were r and omly selected to receive an invitation to screening for diabetes ( with an OGTT ) and related cardiovascular risk factors . In the remaining two-thirds of the population , 1,705 individuals were r and omly selected for invitation to screening in 2000–2003 and 1,526 were not invited at any point during the follow-up period . All individuals were flagged for mortality until January 2008 . Results There were 345 deaths between 1990 and 1999 ( median 10 years follow-up ) . Compared with those not invited , individuals who were invited to the 1990–1992 screening round had a non-significant 21 % lower all-cause mortality ( HR 0.79 [ 95 % CI 0.63–1.00 ] , p = 0.05 ) after adjustment for age , sex and deprivation . There were 291 deaths between 2000 and 2008 ( median 8 years follow-up ) , with no significant difference in mortality between invited and non-invited participants in 2000–2003 . Compared with the non-invited group , participants who attended for screening at any time point had a significantly lower mortality and those who did not attend had a significantly higher mortality . Conclusions /interpretationInvitation to screening was associated with a non-significant reduction in mortality in the Ely cohort between 1990 and 1999 , but this was not replicated in the period 2000–2008 . This study contributes to the evidence concerning the potential benefits of population screening for diabetes and related cardiovascular risk factors
General practice -based health checks are associated with statistically significant , albeit clinical ly small , improvements in surrogate outcome control , especially among high-risk patients .
BACKGROUND A recent review concluded that general health checks fail to reduce mortality in adults .
AIM This review focuses on general practice -based health checks and their effects on both surrogate and final outcomes .