The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it would provide 95 sessions of government-funded adult health examinations starting on Jan. 27 and would encourage residents who have recently turned 40 to undergo health checks.
Cancer ranked first among the top 10 causes of death in Taipei last year, accounting for 28.9 percent of all deaths, and chronic diseases — including cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes — accounted for 63.8 percent of mortality overall.
Taipei Department of Health Commissioner Huang Shier-chieg (黃世傑) said that people older than 40 often neglect their health because they are busy working, but chronic diseases often start out with no or mild symptoms and get progressively worse over a long time until they start causing various complications.
By the time symptoms become obvious, condition are likely to already have seriously affected a person’s health and life quality, Huang said, adding that undergoing regular health checkups is crucial in detecting chronic diseases at an earlier stage.
The initial symptoms of many chronic diseases — even cancer — are mild, but if people neglect regular health exams, they might miss the window of opportunity for effective treatment, Taipei City Hospital Renai Branch attending physician Wu Tai-ying (吳岱穎) said.
The Health Promotion Administration’s data on integrated health exams in 2015 showed that the average rate of hypertension was 20.2 percent, high blood sugar was found in 8.9 percent of patients and high blood lipids were detected in 28 percent, she said, adding studies have suggested that large-scale health exams are effective in reducing the incidence of many chronic diseases, as well as mortality rates.
As of September last year, the national turnout rate for government-funded health exams for adults aged 40 to 64 was 27.88 percent, but the rate in Taipei was only 15.68 percent, the department said.
REMINDERS
To encourage eligible residents to undergo checkups — including the adult health examination and screening for cervical, colon, oral cavity and breast cancers — the department said it would organize 95 sessions of the integrated health exams at 16 designated hospitals.
Adults aged from 40 to 64 are eligible for a free examination once every three years, while people aged 65 and older are eligible for a free examination once a year.
An estimated 46,000 city residents that have turned 40 are to be informed by mail this year.
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