One of the most important things you can do for your health and longevity is take steps to prevent certain conditions from happening. Prevention, which works to keep you safe from and aware of the issues that may affect your path to healthy living, can take several forms. VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) is researching ways to improve screening, detection and prevention for health conditions that affect Veterans.
What is prevention?
Sometimes prevention means lifestyle changes—like getting quality sleep, maintaining a healthy diet and engaging in consistent physical activity—all activities included on VA’s National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention’s (NCP) list of 10 Healthy Living messages for you and your family. Visit the full list.
Other changes are in the form of preventive medicine. One of NCP’s Healthy Living messages is to get recommended screenings, which involves looking for a condition before having any signs or symptoms of that condition. Screenings can help detect certain health conditions or help you and your health care team take steps to prevent some conditions from starting.
Recommendations for screenings and tests depend on your age, sex, health status and family history, so every person’s unique needs are different. For instance, an annual breast cancer screening is recommended for all women aged 45 to 54; colon cancer screening is recommended for men and women starting at age 45.
Everyone should be screened for alcohol abuse, depression, high blood pressure, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), obesity, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and tobacco use. You can see the full list of VHA-recommended preventive health services.
If you have any questions about which health screenings are right for you given your unique health history, reach out to your doctor or health care team.
Better health research for better health care
Researchers are using MVP data to study how genes, lifestyle, military experiences and exposures affect health and wellness. One of the goals of this research is to find better ways to screen for, detect and prevent health conditions that matter to Veterans. MVP data has led to:
- An improved way to predict coronary artery disease risk in African, European, Hispanic and South Asian ancestries.
- A genetic screening tool that could help predict prostate cancer in male Veterans from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
- Opportunities to improve breast cancer screenings and prevention among women of African descent based on a genetic breast cancer risk assessment.
- Research findings that could help develop glaucoma risk scores for diverse populations, including Black and Hispanic populations.
Join MVP to support health care research
Researchers using MVP data study conditions that matter to Veterans, including:
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Posttraumatic stress disorder
- Substance use disorders
- Suicide prevention
- Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
More than 1,000,000 Veterans have joined MVP—each putting us one step closer to transforming personalized health care for all Veterans and, ultimately, all Americans. You can learn more about MVP or join today.
You can also call 866-441-6075 to make an appointment at a participating VA facility. You don’t need to receive your care at VA to participate.
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