Tune-Up for Life: More than 50 percent of men and women who participated in Pfizer’s “Tune-Up for Life” free health screening program at Winston Cup stock car races had not seen their doctor in a year or more. Moreover, men–nearly 75 percent of those who were screened–were less likely to visit their doctor for regular check-ups than were women, according to a presentation at the Seventeenth Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension. Conducted at 39 Winston Cup race weekends in 19 states in 2001, Tune-Up-for-Life is an ongoing mobile screening program offering free information and health screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and erectile dysfunction (ED). Screenings of 24,000 people revealed that 56 percent of men and 40 percent of women had not seen their doctor in at least a year. The screenings also found that 43 percent of men and 26 percent of women screened had high blood pressure and 60 percent of men and 22 percent of women had high cholesterol. Both are risk factors for heart disease. In an analysis of those participants who said they did not have hypertension, investigators found that 40 percent of men and 23 percent of women, in fact, had high blood pressure. Of great concern, even among men and women who said they had hypertension, more than half of them had abnormally high blood pressure readings at screening, indicating poor control of blood pressure even among those with known hypertension. In addition to measuring blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, men participating in “Tune-Up for Life” completed the Sexual Health Inventory for Men (SHIM), a standard screening tool to assess the presence of ED. The results revealed that 50 percent of men who reported having high blood pressure also had SHIM scores consistent with possible ED, while only 31 percent of those not reporting high blood pressure had SHIM scores consistent with possible ED. At the screenings, participants received health information, advice on reducing their risk factors and recommendations to see their own physician with the results of the screening as necessary. All were encouraged to see their physician on a regular basis.(Pfizer PR)(6-4-2002)
