Predicting the uptake of health checks in general practice: Invitation methods and patients' health beliefs

General practice is in an ideal position to encourage people to adopt healthier lifestyles. One way in which this might be achieved is through the offering of health checks. This paper sought to identify some of the factors which may be important in predicting the uptake of health checks. These were seen to fall into two broad areas--the way in which patients are invited and patients' health beliefs. For the purposes of the study, 299 middle-aged male patients registered at a single practice were randomly allocated to be invited to a health check via two invitation methods. In the first, patients were sent an invitation letter with an appointment. In the second patients' notes were tagged so that they could be invited opportunistically by their GP. After one year, 63.5% of patients invited opportunistically had attended a health check compared with 61.2% of patients sent an invitation letter. However, only 51.6% of the opportunistic group had been invited after one year, meaning that the letter invitation method produced twice as many patients at the health check over the same period of time. Examination of health belief questionnaires sent to patients prior to the commencement of the health checks (50.2% response rate) indicated that attenders had a stronger initial intention to attend and placed a greater value on their health. More detailed analysis revealed intention to show strong relationships with beliefs about the benefits of, and barriers to, attendance at a health check. These results suggest that in order to increase uptake of health checks letter invitations need to be employed. Such letters should emphasize the benefits of health checks and address the potential barriers to attendance.