Health screening
Health screening, from the checks to the decisions
Health screening means measuring the things that go wrong silently — blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, body composition, kidney function — while you still feel well. This hub explains what belongs in a screening panel, how often to repeat each check, and how to turn a lab printout into a risk estimate you can act on.
What a full adult screening covers
Blood pressure
Systolic and diastolic pressure, read against the 130/80 mmHg hypertension threshold.
Who: Every adult, at least once a year — more often if a previous reading was raised.
Fasting blood glucose and HbA1c
Fasting glucose plus HbA1c, which reflects average blood sugar over roughly three months. HbA1c at or above 6.5% meets the diabetes threshold.
Who: Adults from 35, or earlier with a raised BMI, a large waist or a family history of diabetes.
Read the guideLipid panel
Total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides. LDL above 100 mg/dL flags hyperlipidemia.
Who: Adults from 40, and from 20 with a family history of premature heart disease.
Read the guideBody composition
BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio — the measures that drive the metabolic syndrome definition.
Who: Everyone, at each check. They cost nothing but a tape measure.
Kidney function
Serum creatinine converted to eGFR with the CKD-EPI 2021 equation, then staged against KDIGO categories.
Who: Anyone with diabetes, hypertension or long-term NSAID use.
Read the guideCardiovascular risk score
A 10-year probability of heart attack or stroke from ASCVD, QRISK3 or SCORE2-Diabetes, using the numbers above.
Who: Adults 40-79 without a prior cardiovascular event.
Read the guideBone health
10-year major osteoporotic and hip fracture probability from clinical risk factors, with or without a DXA scan.
Who: Women from 65, men from 70, and earlier after a fragility fracture or on steroids.
Read the guideCancer screening schedule
Age- and risk-based intervals for breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate screening, adjusted for family history.
Who: Driven by your age, sex and family health tree.
Score your results with published models
Screening numbers only matter once they are combined. Each calculator below runs on the same set of results and is explained in plain language before you use it.
ASCVD 10-year risk: what the Pooled Cohort Equations tell you
How the ACC/AHA Pooled Cohort Equations estimate your 10-year risk of heart attack or stroke, which inputs matter, and what the risk bands mean.
QRISK3 explained: a broader cardiovascular risk model
What QRISK3 measures, the extra conditions it accounts for that older calculators ignore, and how to interpret your 10-year percentage.
Fracture risk: how FRAX-style bone scores work
How 10-year major osteoporotic and hip fracture probabilities are estimated, which clinical risk factors count, and when a DXA scan changes the answer.
eGFR and CKD-EPI 2021: reading your kidney numbers
How the CKD-EPI 2021 creatinine equation estimates kidney function, what the G-stages mean, and which everyday medications need a second look.
HOMA-IR: measuring insulin resistance before diabetes appears
How HOMA-IR is calculated from fasting glucose and insulin, what the thresholds mean, and how it relates to HOMA-B, QUICKI and the TyG index.
Screening in Nigeria
Reference ranges are international, but the tests you can actually get, what they cost and which results mislead are local questions. These pages are written for readers using Nigerian labs and HMO packages.
Health screening questions
- What is a health screening?
- A health screening is a set of measurements and lab tests taken while you feel well, to catch conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and reduced kidney function before they cause symptoms. Screening looks for risk; diagnosis comes afterwards, from a clinician.
- How often should I have a health screening?
- Blood pressure and body measurements are worth checking at least yearly. Glucose, HbA1c and a lipid panel are typically every one to three years for an adult with normal results, and annually if a previous result was borderline or you have diabetes, hypertension or a strong family history.
- Which tests should be in a basic screening panel?
- Blood pressure, pulse, weight, height, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c and a full lipid profile cover most preventable cardiometabolic disease. Serum creatinine for kidney function is a low-cost addition that changes medication safety decisions.
- Can I do a health screening without visiting a clinic?
- You still need a laboratory or clinic to draw blood. What you can do at home is enter those results here, have them scored against published clinical models, and get a doctor-ready summary before your appointment.
- What do I do with an abnormal result?
- Take it to a qualified clinician. This tool flags results outside standard ranges and produces a PDF with your inputs, the scores and the published sources behind them, so the consultation starts from numbers rather than memory. It is not a diagnosis.
This page is educational. Screening flags risk; it does not diagnose. Always take abnormal results to a qualified clinician. See how it works and how your data is protected.
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