Health Screenings You Need in Your 30s
Jake Newby
| 2 min read
Screenings play a huge role in preventive care. In your 20s, you might feel healthy and fit enough to avoid annual screenings, even when you probably shouldn’t. But by the time you approach 30 there are fewer excuses: you should start taking your health more seriously, even if you feel fine.
In our previous blog, titled Health Screenings You Need in Your 20s, we discussed the importance of establishing care with a primary care provider to keep up on important health screenings, vaccinations, and discuss important healthy lifestyle choices. Here’s a quick refresher of the screenings you need between ages 20 and 30:
- Annual preventive visit
- Blood pressure screening
- Cholesterol screening
- Dental exams
- Eye exams
- Infectious disease screening
- Mental health screening
As adults enter their 30s, they should continue these routine screenings. But the testing shouldn’t stop there. Additional screening tests are recommended for this age group.
Pre-diabetes and diabetes testing
Of the approximate 38 million Americans with diabetes, one in five are not aware they have it. The number of people with diabetes is increasing which has led the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to recommend screening for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes beginning at age 35.
Cervical cancer screening
It is recommended that female individuals receive their first cervical cytology screening or Pap test beginning at age 21 and every three years thereafter until age 29.
Between the ages of 30 and 65 individuals should be screened with a cervical cytology test every 3 years alone, or the Human papillomavirus (HPV) test every 5 years alone, or both tests every 5 years.
Informed medical decision making
This blog post highlights some of the routine health screenings for adults in this age range. There may be additional recommendations based on individual risk factors including family history and lifestyle. It is important for you to be informed about recommended health screenings, understand the benefits of early detection, risks involved if you decide to not receive recommended screenings, and potential benefits and risks of treatment. We recommend that you have a conversation with your provider that incorporates your goals and values as you make decisions regarding your health care.
Photo credit: Getty Images
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