The federal government is trying some humorous scare tactics in a new ad campaign to persuade men to get recommended checkups, today’s WSJ reports.
Experts warn that men’s reticence about going to the doctor — men are 24% less likely than women to have made a routine care visit in the last year — could translate into higher costs of care for a flood of aging Baby Boomers. “In the next 20 to 30 years we are going to see an increase in the population of men who have had virtually no preventive care,” says John Morley, an endocrinologist and geriatrics specialist at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri. “Men have to be much more aggressive about getting involved in their own health.”
The list of tests men should consider is based on recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and is limited to screenings that evidence shows are effective for routine use. Those include blood pressure and cholesterol screening, as well as screening for depression and sexually transmitted diseases.
But experts say men also need to talk to their doctors about the risk of developing diseases that aren’t screened for using the recommended tests. For example, the death rate for skin cancers is steadily rising among middle-aged and older men, with white males over 50 making up nearly 50% of all melanoma deaths in the U.S. The USPSTF says there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine body checks for skin cancer, but a study last year in the Archives of Dermatology found that by delaying seeking care for melanoma, men more often present to doctors at a later stage when it is no longer treatable. Cancer groups and dermatologists have stepped up efforts to target men — especially less-educated, middle-aged and older men — to encourage self-exams of the skin to look for changes in moles, since early detection can improve survival.
Prostate cancer, meanwhile, is the second leading cause of cancer death in men after lung cancer, but the task force doesn’t recommend routine screening; for men younger than 75, it says, the benefits are uncertain and the balance of benefits and harms can’t be determined; for men over 75, there is moderate certainty that the harms of screening outweigh the benefits, according to the task force. The USPSTF recommends that doctors discuss the harms and benefits of prostate cancer screening with their patients before performing screening procedures.
The recommendations don’t necessarily affect coverage decisions. For example, for beneficiaries aged 50 or older, Medicare covers one test each year for the two most common tests to detect prostate cancer: the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test, and the digital rectal examination (DRE).
In addition to print and broadcast ads that portray Dad as doomed if he doesn’t get his preventive screening tests, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has developed an “e-card” for people to send to their fathers to remind them to go get preventive care. It’s available on the AHRQ’s website by clicking on the button that says: “Get Dad to the Doc.
