Thirteenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Health care as a human rights is memorialized at the Declaration, Covenant, and Sustainable Development Goals levels. The UDHR, Article 25, acknowledges the right to a “standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself (sic) and of his (sic) family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary social services.” The ICESR, Article 12, recognizes the “right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”, including prevention and treatment. SDG 3 proposes to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages with targets including social and economic determinants of health and well-being. The World Health Organization has defined health as “the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. Identification of “low-value” care, often by frequently-cited USPSTF recommendations, implies the prominence of non-medical factors in screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The present ongoing narrative review of articles published since mid-2020 in the JAMA collection of journals provides evidence of 1) low-value care that includes preventable medical harm that can result from over-screening and unnecessary diagnostic tests; and 2) over-treatment throughout the life course from birth (e.g., through nonessential surgical delivery) to the end of life (e.g., through aggressive treatment of terminal cancer during the final months of life). Rights-based discourse about health care can be strengthened by attention to the accruing practice-based-evidence of low-value, potentially harmful interventions that occur for non-medical reasons.