DEFINITON - Prevention
“Actions aimed at eradicating, eliminating or minimizing the impact of disease and disability, or if none of these are feasible, retarding the progress of the disease and disability”.
Leavell’s Levels of Prevention
A. Primordial prevention
B. primary
C. secondary
D. Tertiary
A. Primordial prevention
• Primordial prevention consists of Actions and measures that inhibit the emergence of risk factors in the form of environmental, economic, social, behavioral and cultural risk factors etc.
• It is the prevention of the emergence or development of risk factors in countries or population groups in which they have not yet appeared.
• Applied for NCDs.
• For example, many adult health problems (e.g., obesity, hypertension, DM etc.) have their early origins in childhood, because this is the time when lifestyles are formed (for example, smoking, alcoholism, eating patterns, physical exercise etc.).
b. Interventions
i. Individual Education and
ii. Mass education
• Discouraging children from adopting harmful lifestyles
B. Primary prevention
Definition
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”.
b. Specific interventions
Intervention in the pre-pathogenesis phase of a disease or health problem.
i. Health promotion and
ii. Specific protection
Health promotoion
• Health education
• Environmental Modifications
• Nutritional Interventions
• Life style and behavioral changes
Specific Protection
1. Immunization
2. Chemoprophylaxis
3. Use of specific nutrients or supplementations
4. Protection against occupational hazards
5. Safety of drugs and foods
6. Control of environmental hazards.
c. Approaches for Primary Prevention
i. Population (mass) strategy
ii. High - risk strategy
C. Secondary prevention
Definition
• It is defined as “ Action which halts the progress of a disease at its incipient stage and prevents complications.”
• The specific interventions are:
i. Early diagnosis
(e.g. Mass screening tests, and case finding programs….) and
ii. Adequate treatment.
• ( e.g. Specific drug with complete course of treatment)
D. Tertiary prevention
a. Definition
“All the measures available to reduce or limit impairments and disabilities, and to promote the patients’ adjustment to irremediable conditions.”
b. Intervention
i. Disability limitation, and
ii. Rehabilitation.
i. Disability limitation,
Impairment
“Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure or function”..”
Disability
“Any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for the human being.”
Handicap
“Handicap is a disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from an impairment or disability, that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role in the community that is normal (depending on age, sex, and social and cultural factors) for that individual.”
Rehabilitation
“ 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.”