Low uptake of periodic health examinations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2013.
BACKGROUND
It is unknown whether Saudis receive health examinations periodically. To inform health authorities on the health-seeking behavior of the Saudi population, we investigated patterns of periodic health examination (PHE) use by Saudis.


METHODS
We conducted a nationally representative multistage survey of individuals aged 15 years or older on sociodemographic characteristics, healthcare utilization, and self-reported chronic conditions. We used a backward elimination multivariate logistic regression model to measure associations between PHE and sociodemographic, behavioral, and health characteristics.


RESULTS
Between April and June 2013, a total of 12,000 households were contacted, and 10,735 participants completed the survey (response rate of 89.4%). Among participants, 2542 (22.9%), representing more than 2.7 million Saudis aged 15 years or older, received a PHE during the past 2 years. Moreover, 7463 (73.5%) participants, representing 9.1 million Saudis, visited a healthcare setting in the past 2 years due to illness or injury. The likelihood of receiving a PHE in the past 2 years increased with age, education, being married, consumption of five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, diagnoses of prediabetes, diabetes, or hypercholesterolemia, and a visit to a healthcare setting within the last 2 years due to an illness or an injury.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first national study to investigate the use of PHE in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) where healthcare is freely available. Few Saudis seek preventive healthcare and most healthcare visits are for injuries or sickness. KSA may reduce its health expenditures by routinizing PHE and detecting chronic conditions at early stages.
Department of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Charbel
C
El Bcheraoui
Department of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Marwa
M
Tuffaha
Department of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Farah
F
Daoud
Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad A
MA
AlMazroa
Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad
M
Al Saeedi
Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Ziad A
ZA
Memish
Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Mohammed
M
Basulaiman
Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Al Murabba, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Abdullah A
AA
Al Rabeeah
Department of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Ali H
AH
Mokdad
Periodic health examination; Saudi Arabia; prevention; primary care; screening