Healthy people may get unneeded tests

YONKERS, N.Y., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- More than 40 percent of healthy U.S. adults say they had a heart-specific screening test that may have been unnecessary, a survey indicates.

A July 2010 Consumer Reports Health survey of 8,056 Consumer Reports subscribers ages 40-60 indicates 44 percent of healthy adults with no risk factors for heart disease said they'd had an electrocardiogram, a blood test for C-reactive protein and an exercise stress test in the last five years.

Anyone with type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, angina, heart attack, stroke, heart failure or peripheral artery blockage, was screened out of the survey.

"Something needs to be done to rein in the spending and testing spree by patients and their doctors," Dr. John Santa, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center, says in a statement. "It's worrisome that healthy people are getting tests they may not need."

For example, 29 percent of healthy people in the survey described themselves as "at risk" for heart disease even they had no heart risk factors -- including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diagnosed heart condition, symptoms of heart disease, smoking and health rated as poor.

Consumer Reports Health recommends blood pressure testing for all men and women whenever they visit their doctor -- at least every two years -- and cholesterol screening for all men, regardless of risk, as well as women who are at moderate to high risk every five years.