Do health checks cause stress?

Abstract

Data are reported concerning social responses to health checks in an occupational setting. Previous research has suggested that screening may be a stressful experience. This, in turn, has contributed to a degree of scepticism about the value of health checking. No evidence was found in the present study to support the proposition that health checks cause such responses. It is shown that health checks prompt recipients to try to engage in health promoting behavioural changes. The study was a randomized controlled trial of 1371 persons employed in a large engineering factory in the West of Scotland.