The human body is prone to disease and illness from what we eat, drink, and smell. Sometimes this illness lies silently, causing a gradual decline to one's health until it becomes critical. At this point we hear something like "It's critical, if only we had known it earlier". Often a point of regret and wishes and advice coming from neighbors and loved ones who talk about a regular checkup. I worked in a lab for 2 & half years, the only time anyone came for a check-up was when they had symptoms, aside that, they believed they're well.
I believe that's our culture, we are fine as long as our body has no symptoms of any disease. We only take precautions when we witness its effect from someone who suffered the consequences of an underlying disease. Personally, I've never gone for a checkup, I only took the privilege of working in the lab to do some tests on myself but have never gone for a checkup for the sake of wanting to know my health status. I know it's good to have regular check-ups, but it seems we don't have the luxury of spending money checking our health status.
A scholar once defined health as "we are well, if we think we are and vice versa". This seems to be the case of a typical African, we believe we are healthy because we feel no symptoms and are unhealthy once we feel certain changes. The rich go for checkup more often than the average and poor, not actually because the poor or average care less about their health but for two reasons:
- Afraid that they'll discover an unexpected illness and make them worry
- It's rarely considered, judging among other worries.
I've heard cases of people who went for a checkup, discovered they had a certain illness, were admitted immediately and died. Someone who was healthy but complicated things by going for a checkup... Probably had an underlying disease but the fear of finding out sometimes is more terrifying than not knowing. But then, a check-up is important, it's better to know earlier than the sudden realization. Prevention is indeed better than cure. The only reasons why I rarely go for check-ups are the reasons mentioned above.