- NEED HELP? CALL US NOW
- +919995411505
- [email protected]
Levels of Prevention
Prevention is better Than Cure
WHAT IS PREVENTION?
Definition of Disease Prevention
“Activities designed to protect patients or o ther members of the public from actual or pot ential health threats and their harmful consequences.”
OR
“Prevention is the action aimed at eradicating, eliminating or minimizing the impact of disease and disability.”
Preventive health measures have been grouped into stages to target the prevention of these stages of a disease.
These preventive stages or levels are :
- Primordial prevention,
- Primary prevention,
- Secondary prevention,
- Tertiary prevention.
Combined, these strategies not only aim to prevent the onset of disease through risk reduction, but also downstream complications of a manifested disease.
PRIMORDIAL PREVENTION
- In 1978, the most recent addition to preventive strategies, primordial prevention, was described.
- It consists of risk factor reduction targeted towards an entire population through a focus on social and environmental conditions.
- Such measures typically get promoted through laws and national policy. Because primordial prevention is the earliest prevention modality, it is often aimed at children to decrease as much risk exposure as possible.
- Primordial prevention targets the underlying stage of natural disease by targeting the underlying social conditions that promote disease onset.
- This is a prevention of Development of risk Factors in a Population group, which they have not yet appeared.”
- Special Attention is given in preventing Chronic Disease.
- Main Intervention is Health Education.
- In these efforts are dedicated towards Discouraging people from adopting Harmful Life styles/Habits through Individual & Mass Education.
- Primordial prevention begins in childhood when health risk behavior begins. Parents, teachers and peer groups are important in imparting health education to children.
PRIMARY PREVENTION
Primary prevention can be defined as the action taken prior to the onset of disease, which removes the possibility that the disease will ever occur.”
- In this Action are taken before the onset of Disease.
- It signifies intervention in the pre- pathogenesis phase of a disease or health problem.
- It includes the concept of "positive health", a concept that encourages achievement and maintenance of "an acceptable level of health that will enable every individual to lead a socially and economically productive life".
- Primary Prevention achieved by Specific protection, Health promotion ,Nutritional interventions, Life style and behavioral changes
The WHO has recommended the following approaches for the primary prevention of chronic diseases where the risk factors are established: – A) Population (mass) strategy – B) High -risk strategy
Population (mass) strategy
- “Population strategy" is directed at the whole population irrespective of individual risk levels.
- For example, studies have shown that even a small reduction in the average blood pressure or serum cholesterol of a population would produce a large reduction in the incidence of cardiovascular disease
- The population approach is directed towards socio-economic, behavioral and lifestyle changes
High -risk strategy
- The high -risk strategy aims to bring preventive care to individuals at special risk.
- This requires detection of individuals at high risk by the optimum use of clinical methods.
- Primary prevention is a “Holistic” approach which relies on the measures taken to Promote Health.
SECONDARY PREVENTION
- Secondary prevention emphasizes early disease detection, and its target is healthy-appearing individuals with subclinical forms of the disease.
- The subclinical disease consists of pathologic changes, but no overt symptoms that are diagnosable in a doctor's visit. Secondary prevention often occurs in the form of screenings.
TERTIARY PREVENTION
- It is used when the disease process has advanced beyond its early stages.
- It is defined as “all the measures available to reduce or limit impairments and disabilities, and to promote the patients’ adjustment to irremediable conditions.”
- Intervention that should be accomplished in the stage of tertiary prevention are disability limitation, and rehabilitation.
- Tertiary prevention targets both the clinical and outcome stages of a disease. It is implemented in symptomatic patients and aims to reduce the severity of the disease as well as of any associated sequelae.
| Disability Limitation | Rehabilitation |
|---|---|
| To prevent or halt the transition of disease process from Impairment & Handicap. | The combined and coordinated use of medical, social, educational, and vocational measures for training and retraining the individual to the highest possible level of functional ability |
| Impairment: any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomic structure or function | Types :
|
| Disability: any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner considered normal for a human being. | Medical rehabilitation: restoration of Bodily Function |
| Handicap: disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from impairment or disability, that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal for that individual | Vocational rehabilitation: restoration of the capacity to earn a livelihood |
| Social rehabilitation: restoration of family and social relationship | |
| Psychological rehabilitation: Restoration of personal dignity and confidence | |
Examples :
|
