Abstract:
Backgrounds. Primary prevention care requires active approach not only from the health professionals but also
from all individuals of the target population. People themselves have to be interested for their own health, for the
preventive examinations, for their life-style. However, the health supporting activities based on the voluntary interest
are most frequently exploited by people who actually do not need it, and people of the high risks stay apart. The aim
of the study was to identify major differences among those who are interested in the preventive examinations and
who are not, and answer the question whether those who declare their interest are the needful and primarily aimed
population.
Methods and Results. Within the preventive project, 4353 parents of school-aged children in Brno were examined
using a special questionnaire. Beside interest in examination, following criteria were questioned and analysed: age,
education level, economical standard, subjective evaluation of health, occurrence of concrete health problems, family
health history, adequacy of the body weight (according reported height and weight), dietary habits, alcohol
consummation, smoking habits, recreation-sport activities, and selected subjective perceptions. Differences based
on concern about examination were evaluated by the comparison of studied parameters in groups formed according
the „interest“ and also using the logistic regression analysis. We found that the dominating determinant of concern
about the preventive examination was the interest of the family partner (harmony of interests). In the group of persons
who declared their „interest“, higher education level, worse subjective evaluation of health, higher occurrence of
concrete health problems, and higher incidence of selected diseases in the family were more frequently reported.
Obversely, the number of smokers was lower in this group. Incidence of overweight persons differed according to
their sex - meanwhile more overweight women were among the „interested group“, more overweight men were
among the „not interested“. Women in the „interested“ group consumed alcohol less frequently, men in this group
were often more active in sports. Dietary habits as well as economical standard did not differ among the two groups.
Conclusions. Though the differences among groups with different concern about examination were statistically
different, they were not very pronounced. It cannot be confirmed that the preventive examination is exploited
preferably by people without major risk factors, those socio-demografically or otherwise specific, or generally those
to whom the proposal of examination was not aimed.
Key words:
primary prevention care, primary-preventive examination, determinants of interest.
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