Premarital checkups - rising again after decline - to reduce birth defects

The premarital checkup rate in China increased to nearly 60 percent of all new couples in 2016, after a series of measures taken in recent years to encourage the exams as a way to help reduce birth defects, China's top health authority said.

In 2016, 59.7 percent of all couples who married in China had a premarital checkup, with diseases spotted in more than 930,000 people that could affect birth, the National Health and Family Planning Commission wrote in response to written questions from China Daily.

Premarital checkups, which target diseases that could affect the health of couples or their offspring, can help with early diagnosis and treatment and to promote reproductive health, reduce birth defects and improve the population's overall health, the commission said.