Over 40s in England will be sent a blood test to carry out at home in a bid to reduce heart disease and obesity.
Digital NHS health checks will be launched next spring for people aged 40 to 74 and will include an online health questionnaire. Around 15 million people will be eligible, with roughly one million online checks expected to be carried out over the next four years.
The home blood test will check cholesterol levels, with patients asked to take a blood pressure test to a pharmacy alongside the online assessment. The assessment will cover details such as weight, height, diet, alcohol intake and exercise levels, with results made available online, Nottinghamshire Live reports.
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Help will be made available to anyone showing early signs of issues such as diabetes or heart disease, as well as referrals to weight-loss clinics or medication. Steve Barclay, health and social care secretary, believes that the simple health checks could save lives and ease pressure on the NHS and GP services, and that they have the potential to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
The online questionnaire will be available via phone, tablet or computer and the Government believes each check will save the NHS 20 minutes. Cardiovascular disease affects around 6.4 million people in England, and is the second biggest killer.
The Government says the new digital check could help to identify 200,000 people who could benefit from the use of statins, 30,000 cases of hypertension, and prevent around 400 heart attacks and strokes over the first four years. Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation said that the initiative could encourage more people to get their blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked.
He said: "This could play an important role in helping people live healthier for longer and saving lives in the coming years, while reducing pressure on the NHS."
Existing NHS health checks for people in the same age group take place face-to-face with a GP and concerns have been expressed that older people are not left behind if they struggle with technology. David Baines, vice chair of the Local Government Association, said: "Making more digital health checks available is a useful tool to detect certain illnesses but it should be treated as an addition to, not a replacement for, a physical health check."
