Prevention

Question 1

Describe primary prevention

Answer 1

Aim is to remove the cause of the disease.

• Attempting to reduce the incidence of disease amongst healthy individuals by trying to remove the causal exposure (e.g. smoke ban), enhancement of host resistance (e.g. vaccines), interruption of infectious agents (e.g. condom) etc

Question 2

Describe secondary prevention

Answer 2

We don’t know the cause of all diseases so primary prevention cannot always be provided.

Secondary prevention involves screening for early stage disease. We can then provide treatment for those with the early stage of the disease to cure or prevent/delay progression of the disease present and improve prognosis.

Question 3

Describe tertiary prevention

Answer 3

Treatment of established/ or late disease and try manage/control the disease e.g. avoid complications.
This is done by giving medical treatment which allows the patient to have a higher quality of life also (palliative)

Question 4

Describe the problem of spotting the difference between the primary vs secondary

Answer 4

Difficult to distinguish from if the disease has a gradual development phase or if the risk factor can be considered a disease in its own right.

Question 5

Describe the problem of spotting the difference between the secondary and tertiary

Answer 5

Difficult to separate the two if the disease is essentially a continuum so its hard to identify when ‘early’ or ‘established’