PREVENTIVE MEDICINE: HISTORIES, FUNCTIONS, TYPES OF PREVENTION - MEDICINE - 2024

The preventive medicine is one whose main focus is on preserving the health of individuals. In general, it is aimed at keeping people in a given population healthy, through the application of various mechanisms.

Individual cases are treated by doctors, who through consultation will seek to convince the subjects of the convenience of taking specific treatments or changing harmful habits in order to preserve health.

One of the most widely used policies to preserve the health of the population by preventive medicine is vaccination. Source: pixabay.com

The fields of action of preventive medicine will be limited to a group of people in whom the risk of contracting a disease has been determined.

It can be an easily contagious pathology that has spread as an epidemic and, to combat it, the authorities draw up vaccination plans aimed at the sector at risk.

Likewise, it is responsible for the preventive medical examination in the initial phases of various diseases, in order to prevent it from developing and compromising health, and leading the person to a serious deterioration in their body.

Preventive medicine has as its main premise the preservation of health from the point of view that it is less expensive to avoid the disease than to treat it once it appears.

That is why every year a large amount of resources is allocated to the creation of policies, laws and campaigns for the education of the population in order to keep the largest number of individuals healthy.

History

The evolution of preventive medicine was the product of advances in curative medicine.

Since ancient civilizations, characterized by high rates of morbidity, mortality and a reduced life expectancy, the interests were focused on finding methods to help people heal.

However, the concern for obtaining knowledge led many researchers to focus on the study of the relationship between various variables involved in the appearance of pathologies.

The results of all these attempts contributed to the fact that between the 15th and 18th centuries multiple procedures were carried out in order to improve health through the development of drugs.

However, preventive medicine was not consolidated until the invention of the smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner during the 18th century.

The prevention procedures to avoid the spread of this disease that caused the death of millions of people, were carried out by vaccinating healthy individuals.

These early practices, in conjunction with the evolution of curative medicine, laid the foundation for the development of preventive medicine.

Features

One of the main functions of preventive medicine resides in the conservation, protection and promotion of healthy habits.

Their actions are generally aimed at healthy individuals or an entire human group that can be part of a community that is considered to be affected by risk factors.

Source: pixabay.com

One of the strategies of preventive medicine is represented by the doctor's recommendations to people for the preservation of health.

Risk factors can be found in the environment, correspond to lifestyle habits or from hereditary conditions, among others.

A typical case becomes evident when certain contagious diseases appear and the health sector authorities undertake mass vaccination campaigns in combination with other measures.

The objective of preventive medicine focuses on the application of various strategies in order to prevent people from contracting diseases. To meet its goals, it supports the creation of educational campaigns for the population with the use of social media.

It also includes the delivery of drugs to individuals who are considered vulnerable. Being classified in this group all those associated with risk factors.

In general, the people targeted by preventive medicine are healthy and are considered only to maintain their well-being.

Types of prevention

Primary prevention

It refers to the actions that are carried out by health organizations, the government or organized communities in order to prevent the population from contracting diseases.

Given the possibility that a disease, for example dengue, that has affected a certain population spreads, policies that include fumigation to exterminate mosquitoes can be implemented.

The set of elements that can combine to give rise to the disease in a population may come from environmental factors or from the lack of information in the population.

In this sense, it is possible that they combine education campaigns in order to inform communities about the measures to be taken to preserve health with vaccination if necessary.

In some countries, vaccination against influenza is promoted before the arrival of the rainy or winter season.

Secondary prevention

It is a type of prevention that occurs specifically during the initial stages of a disease.

Through this approach, it is considered that the treatment of some pathologies in their initial stages is much more effective and reduces the adverse effects in individuals in the long term.

The goal of secondary prevention revolves around early detection in order to keep people healthy and increase life expectancy.

For this purpose, campaigns are designed aimed at specific sectors of the population to screen for certain diseases such as some types of cancer.

Evidence shows that the application of treatments in the early stages of these pathologies greatly reduces mortality rates in patients.

Likewise, days of early detection of high blood pressure and diabetes, among other diseases, are carried out.

The purpose of detecting diseases in early stages allows individuals to initiate treatments, which prevents the disease from getting worse and their health from deteriorating.

These actions, in addition to providing people with a better quality of life, reduce costs.

Tertiary prevention

It is the third phase of preventive medicine and, unlike the primary phase, it becomes evident in the presence of a disease that can be chronic.

Its main objective will be the preservation of the health of the individuals that make up a certain population.

However, their actions will focus on controlling or reducing the risk factors that appear as a result of the emergence of a specific disease.

In the case of a diagnosis of diabetes, a patient will be recommended drug treatment aimed at keeping blood glucose levels stable.

In addition to medications, the patient must acquire healthy eating habits in order to prevent the disease from negatively affecting some organs such as the kidneys, extremities or vision.

The techniques used for tertiary prevention help reduce the chances that the consequences of chronic diseases affect other parts of the body.

Quaternary prevention

As the last stage of preventive medicine, it is equally interested in the well-being of the patient but from another perspective.

Quaternary prevention focuses on healthy or sick individuals, so to speak, and focuses on avoiding health problems that can arise from medical practices as well as treatments.

The use of X-rays to diagnose a disease or the side effects of a drug can have negative consequences on health. This prevention phase is responsible for reducing these risks.

Main concepts

Preventive medicine is oriented to the preservation of health in healthy individuals, therefore, the first concept is associated with health.

The concept of health is related, according to the WHO conception, to general well-being, not only on a physical level but also on a mental level. Therefore, the consideration of a healthy individual goes beyond the one who is not sick.

Preventive medicine is aimed at a population, which is understood as the group of people whose place of residence is a specific location.

During the process of elaborating the policies for the preservation of health, the location of the people to whom the campaign will be directed is defined. According to the case, age ranges and characteristics such as gender will be established, all based on risk factors.

Risk factors are the set of environmental, social and physical elements that make the person prone to acquiring a certain disease.

They can be associated with the immediate environment in which the individual develops, with physical conditions such as genetic background or being related to lifestyle habits that increase the chances of getting sick.

References

1. Preventive medicine: definition and influence on public health. Taken from clinic-cloud.com
2. Del Prado, J. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Prevention. IMF Business School. Taken from blogs.imf-formacion.com
3. Lifshitz, A, (2014). Curative medicine and preventive medicine: scope and limitations. Med int Mex. Taken from Medigraphic.com
4. World Health Organization. How does WHO define health? Taken from who.int
5. Pacala, J, (2014). Introduction to preventive medicine. MANUAL MSD. Taken from mdsmanuals.com.
6. What is preventive medicine? Taken from sanitas.es