The Importance of Preventative Healthcare: A Personal Journey Navigating a New Diagnosis

Written by: Katelyn Simpson on behalf of Starboost Health 

Do you remember going to the doctor’s office as a child and being told by your parents that it’s time for your check-up? Do you remember those feelings of anxiety that you were going to get poked with a needle when they gave you your shots? Well, your answer is more than likely yes to these questions. I, for one, can relate to this as I grew up with a fear of going to the doctor. As it turns out, the older I became, the more that fear grew.   

I’ve always been afraid of a doctor’s visit. Growing up, I had numerous doctor’s visits. I, unfortunately, was considered a “sick” child and from what I remember, I was constantly at the doctor’s office or spending another night in the hospital hugging my stuffed animal tightly as a measure of security and safety. When I was three years old, I was diagnosed with reflux in my left kidney, which is where urine flows backward from the bladder and into the kidneys. Our kidneys are supposed to take in both the good and bad bacteria and release all the bad parts; however, mine decided to keep the bad stuff, which caused a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort. I spent numerous nights in the hospital, almost to the point of removing my left kidney so I wasn’t in pain anymore. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, and I ended up being okay. But how did I know I was okay? Well, simply put, my parents made sure I had regular doctor’s visits and testing performed so I could continue my childhood without any health concerns.   

This, unfortunately, is not the case for many adults in the United States. Many people do not regularly visit a doctor; therefore, they aren’t getting the preventative care tests they need to ensure they can live a healthy life.   

In January 2023, I visited a primary care physician for the first time in adulthood. On and off, the year prior, I experienced kidney stones and had lab work performed in a local hospital emergency room. I was clueless about how to read my bloodwork lab results in my patient portal, however, I noticed some abnormal results come through multiple times and I ignored them, but the last time I went to the hospital and read those abnormalities again, I decided I should probably concur my fear of going to the doctor, and finally get checked out. Little did I know I would get a diagnosis that would drastically change my life. I was diagnosed with type two diabetes by my new primary care physician.   

Upon my diagnosis, I genuinely thought it was a death sentence. This was something I was going to live with for the rest of my life, something going on inside of my body that I had no control over. My A1C was averaging around 12% which is 6.3% higher than the normal average A1C level. With the proper medications, exercising a couple of times a week, and eating home-cooked meals, I have been able to maintain a 7% A1C average.   

Diabetes is just one of many diseases that annual preventative healthcare screenings test for. Other screenings that often are provided during an annual preventative test include checking your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, heart conditions, many different cancer screenings, and vaccine updates as needed. According to the National Library of Medicine, it’s estimated that only 8% of Americans attend an annual preventative healthcare screening whereas only 48% of insured Americans regularly visit a primary healthcare physician.   

Here at Starboost Health, our goal is to close patient care gaps by informing our patients of what preventative healthcare is and the overall importance of attending these screenings on an annual basis. Our mission at Starboost is to assist patients who are overlooked by the healthcare industry, we strive to help those who are typically noncompliant. The term “Noncompliance” tends to carry a negative connotation; however, we have found that patients who are typically noncompliant with preventative screenings are noncompliant simply because they haven’t had the education on the importance of preventative testing. That’s where we come in – our dedicated team is committed to assisting patients in preventative screening education – the noncompliant patients simply haven’t had enough knowledge on what the tests are that are offered to them, and our employees do a fantastic job at informing the patient’s what is available to them through their health plan.  

For myself, had I been informed of the importance of annual screening, I would have jumped at the opportunity to access a primary care physician to ensure that I was the healthiest version of myself that I could be.   

Preventative care screenings not only help a patient catch any type of health abnormality in the earlier stages, but overall, they help patients maintain the lifestyle they want to achieve.