12.06.10
People with mental illness receive inadequate mass screening for the prevention of medical conditions
New research from the University of Leicester and the Leicestershire Partnership Trust (UK) shows that people with mental illness are receiving lower levels of preventive medical screening compared with the general population.
Dr Alex Mitchell, of the Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine at the University of Leicester, led the study which has been published in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.
Dr Mitchell said preventive screening refers to population based medical tests such as mammography, colonoscopy, blood pressure testing or cholesterol levels to detect conditions such as cancer, diabetes or heart conditions. These screening programmes are typically administered widely in order to help with early detection or prevention and have been credited with improving outcomes of several key medical conditions.
He said: “The research at the University of Leicester identified 26 studies worldwide that examined levels of preventive care provided to over 1.3 million individuals with versus without mental ill health diagnoses. Inferior preventive care was most apparent in those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia where there was inferior osteoporosis screening, blood pressure monitoring, vaccinations, mammography and cholesterol monitoring in 9 out of 10 studies.”
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