"You can't prevent everything anyway": A qualitative study of beliefs and attitudes about refusing health screening in general practice

Abstract

Non-participants have rational views on risk factor testing and on their own responsibility for maintaining health. Non-attendance was due to a conscious choice which included consulting their own GP.

Non-participants in a preventive health examination for cardiovascular disease: characteristics, reasons for non-participation, and willingness to participate in the future

“…In a qualitative study in Denmark it was found that decisions not to participate in a health screening programme were related to practical issues but also to the fact that the non-participants did not want potential risk factors to be revealed, or their feeling of good health to be disturbed (10). This study also found that non-participation at one point in time does not exclude a willingness to be contacted in the future.…”

Effectiveness of general practice-based health checks: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Finally, even though studies were conducted among patients who had agreed to participate, patients who refused to participate did not appear to be significantly different from those participants in terms of general health status and health awareness. 32,33 All four studies reporting mortality demonstrated a bias towards the null caused by early interventions to the control group prior to data collection (for example, health check to the control group prior to mortality data collection) 17,[26][27][28] or the merging of study groups (for example, in the OXCHECK study, the initial health check was conducted in 3 consecutive years in the intervention group). 29 …”

Untitled

“…Viden er ikke universel, heller ikke den viden der fremkommer af naervaerende undersøgelse. Andre undersøgelser viser, at ikke alle mennesker vil deltage i undersøgelser, der kan påvise forandringer i kroppen (Nielsen 2004). Viden formidles på mange måder, og i denne artikel kunne der peges på vigtigheden i at forstå de processer, hvor udformningen af kronisk sygdom finder sted.…”