Want to find out if you’re fertile, allergic to dust mites or suffering from high blood pressure? There’s a home test kit that can tell you. You can also check to see if you’re carrying the red hair gene, if you have the AIDS virus or if you’re a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease — all in the privacy of your own home.
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The do-it-yourself movement is thriving at many South Florida pharmacies and on the Web as more people take a proactive role in their health care, join the ranks of the uninsured or simply want to avoid long waits in a doctor’s office.
Along with home pregnancy tests, which hit the American market 32 years ago, there are now take-home, over-the-counter kits that detect everything from urinary tract infections to colon cancer to whether your teenager is using illegal drugs. You can self-screen your own blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels.
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“We’ve seen more interest in home diagnostics — ovulation kits, drug kits, hormone testing, cholesterol monitors — in the last year or so,” says Jenny Alfonso, a pharmacist at South Miami Pharmacy, 6233 Sunset Dr., which has started offering free, in-house screenings for glaucoma, HIV and other health problems on the first Monday of every month.
“I tend to attribute it to the economy and people getting less healthcare because they’re losing their jobs and their health insurance.”
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On a positive note, many of these home test kits offer convenience, affordability and privacy. Some signal health dangers or offer consolation that you’re OK after all. They put consumers in control.
“The single most important thing is that now we have the ability to do it. This kind of thing didn’t exist before — the technology wasn’t there 10 years ago,” says Dr. Richard J. Cote, chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “There are all kinds of things we can do now with antibody-based testing and new technologies that allow for home diagnosis. People today are interested in taking control of their healthcare.”
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But just because we can test our own body fluid, should we?
While some home tests are necessary to monitor chronic conditions like diabetes, not all of the tests out there are accurate or easy to use. Many vary widely in price. Some require a medical professional’s help to make sense of the results.
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And not all home tests have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — a good measure of a kit’s reliability, consumer advocates say.
It’s not as easy as grabbing the first kit you see on a drugstore shelf.
A Consumer Reports review of home blood pressure monitors, for instance, found that the automatic, arm-type kind tend to be more expensive, but also more accurate than wrist monitors. Cost, however, didn’t necessarily indicate quality. At only $20, the highest-rated blood-glucose meter, the OneTouch UltraMini, was also one of the least expensive.
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Contrary to what you might think, doctors aren’t worried about home test kits replacing them. Many doctors say they favor the kits in some instances because self-screening can help people become better partners in their health care. The American Heart Association recommends that people with high blood pressure monitor their blood pressure at home.
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HIV TESTS
HIV test kits that allow people to be diagnosed in the privacy of their own homes have been another boon for public health, UM’s Cote says.