Understanding Physical Assessments: What Data is Collected?

Upon visiting your doctor, you may feel like you're being bombarded with question after question. However, this process should not worry you. Your doctor is concerned for your health and welfare and wants to help you to improve your health. Asking questions and giving physical assessments will help your doctor to better prescribe a personalized health program appropriate for your situation.

Purpose

• The purpose of a physical assessment is to help medical practitioners more fully understand the condition and health background of patients. Physical health assessments include the personal health history that patients provide as well as a series of small health tests that the doctor or nurse performs on patients. Such collected data can help a doctor to more accurately diagnose a condition and better understand patients' baseline physical and mental status.

Demographic Data

• At the beginning of the assessment, the medical practitioner must collect personal information about you, such as your name, gender, age, marital status, race, religion and occupation. This type of information can help the medical practitioner better understand your background and demographic.

Health History

• During the health history part of the assessment, the health professional can either directly interview you or provide you with a questionnaire. Questions regarding your medical history relate to such things as your childhood illnesses, allergies, serious illnesses, accidents or injuries, past hospitalizations, habits and immunizations and medications that you have previously received. The doctor must also gather your family medical history, including genetic problems of your parents and grandparents, any contact you have had with communicable diseases, your living environment and your interpersonal relationships.

Subjective Data

• Subjective data is the data or information that you give, because only you can detect this information. For example, you can describe to the doctor any pain, skin irritation, discomfort, dizziness, blurred vision, emotional irregularities or other abnormalities that you may be experiencing.

Objective Data

• The opposite of subjective data, which you provide, objective data comes from your doctor. Objective data includes blood pressure, resting heart rate, height, weight and other vital signs. A health professional can objectively observe skin discoloration, visible infections, audible breathing irregularities, visible bleeding, bumps and broken bones. Body and breath malodors and speech patterns are also observable behavioral and signs that a doctor or nurse must take note of, as these can become clues to help accurately assess your condition.