Description: For people age 50 and older, getting a checkup every year or two may improve the likelihood they'll get the cancer screenings experts recommend, a U.S. study finds.

"Because people go to the doctor anyway when they feel sick or have a medical problem, some authorities have questioned whether preventive, or general, health examinations are worth the extra time and effort," study lead author Joshua Fenton, assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, Davis, said in a prepared statement.

"Our study suggests they are. If people over 50 have checkups every year or two, they're more likely to go ahead and get the cancer screenings they need," Fenton said.

The two-year study, published in the March 26 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, included over 64,000 patients, ages 52 to 78, who were eligible for breast, colon or prostate cancer screenings. Patients who had a regular checkup during t