Disease Prevention:- essence, scope and levels. Strategies of primary prevention. Screening- definition, types, measures of screening tests performance.
Definition of preventive Medicine:
To reduce the risk of a person contracting a disease or by identifying an early manifestation of disease, to reduce the risk of subsequent disability or death
Essence:
- In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th —> dramatic fall in population mortality in the most developed countries due to the decline in death of infectious disease
- Clinical interventions, such as immunization and effective drug treatments for infection, came late in this period —> in an historical perspective, their contribution to health has been relatively small
Scope:
- There is now scope for preventive medicine to be fostered in the course of the clinical work of general practitioners and hospital doctors
- Doctor – patient consultations provide opportunities for educating and advising patients about healthy life styles.
- There is an increasing range of test which can be used to screen for early detection of disease in order to avoid its full-blown consequences
Levels:
- Broad-based Concept
- Prevention in terms of four levels
- Primordial prevention
- Primary prevention
- Secondary prevention
- Tertiary prevention
Strategies of Primary prevention:
- Is a holistic” Approach.
- It relies on measures designed to promote health or to protect against specific disease “agents” and hazards in the environment
- Can be defined as action taken prior to the onset of disease which reduces the possibility that a disease will ever occur
- It signifies intervention in the prepathogenesis phase of a disease or health problem or other departure from health (eg. low birth weight)
- It concerns as individual’s attitude towards life and health and the initiative he takes about positive and responsible measures for himself, his family and his community.
- The concept of primary prevention is now being applied to the prevention of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertentsion and cancer based on elimination or modification of “ risk factors” of disease.
Screening: In medicine, is a strategy used in a population to identify the possible presence of an as-yet-undiagnosed disease in individuals without signs or symptoms
- Necessary conditions for screening
—> Types of screening - Mass screening: Mass screening means, the screening of a whole population or a subgroup. It’s offered to all, irrespective of the risk status of the individual
—> High risk or selective screening: Is conducted among risk populations only