Preventive Medicine - A Brief Look

 

The old saying goes, "Prevention is better than cure". All of us would have heard this at least at one point in our lives. The concept of Preventive Medicine also focuses on the same. It is used to prevent fatality and disability in the general public due to serious health issues, by focusing on the prevention and remediation of the disease at the earliest. It is a type of medicine that has its branches spread across all the age groups of the population and all varieties of diseases, primarily focusing on chronic diseases.

 

There are various levels at which the prevention of a disease can be done. These start from the primary level which contains immunization against the disease- mainly for infants and toddlers, which indicates that the intervention can start at a very early age. Other methods for the primary level include following a healthy diet and exercising regularly, which not just help in disease prevention, but can also guarantee a healthy lifestyle for an individual. This also helps in the prevention of obesity, a major health issue which causes a wide variety of problems including hypertension, diabetes and even cardiovascular diseases.

 

The next level is the secondary level of preventive healthcare, which deals with the detection of the disease, before the onset of the symptoms. The majority of known conditions begin as asymptomatic conditions. This targeted treatment focuses on preventing the asymptomatic disease from showing symptoms. For this, screening tests for a large amount of the population are carried out. Screening tests also vary from diagnostic tests as they are mainly used to detect potential health problems.

 

The level after this is the tertiary level, which helps in the reduction of the severity of the disease. In most cases, the disease has already started showing its symptoms and there are chances of even the patient already being disabled. Thus, this kind of treatment helps in optimizing the functioning of a disabled patient or in the worst cases, prevents the disease from turning fatal.

 

A study conducted in the year 2001 shows that hypertension is the leading cause of death among preventable diseases, with around 7.8 million deaths caused every year. Following closely behind are Smoking, High Cholesterol and Malnutrition, with 5.0, 3.9 and 3.8 million deaths per year, respectively. The majority of the time, the diseases mentioned above are preventable with minimal changes in the diet and lifestyle of the people.

 

Regular screening for the detection of various types of cancer like breast cancer, and cervical cancer, especially for women, for the detection of sexually transmitted infections, osteoporosis and even in some cases, screening for hypertension and hyperglycaemia is also encouraged. Nowadays, even the detection of genetic mutations in fetuses is also on the rise.

 

Also, preventive medicine is not just focused on healthcare methods or the administration of drugs. Systematic prevention also includes cleanliness of the environment, and pollution reduction, mainly in the improvement of air quality index (AQI) measures across the globe. Pollution, especially air pollution, is widely known to be a cause of lung problems, including asthma and various other respiratory complications.

 

Another important preventive healthcare measure prevalent in many countries is the immunization policies followed for infants and toddlers. There are studies linking the reduction of infant mortality rate in countries where the immunization program is active. Also, there are reports showing better life expectancy in the countries where the immunization program is implemented.

Also, occupational medicine is also a branch of medicine that is extensively covered here. It focuses on the physical and mental well-being of workers by taking care of the workspace and keeping in check the side effects associated with the work.

 

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Preventive medicine, apart from covering a wide range of areas, also helps in minimizing out-of-pocket expenditure, which indirectly raises the standard of living among the people. For a long time in history, medicine has always been about treating disease based on the severity of the symptoms and it has not been about proactively finding solutions to mitigate the effects. Thus, preventive medicine will play a huge role in transforming the mindset of the people regarding medicine. 

Further, research in the field of genetics is being carried out to establish links between pre-existing conditions and the probability of the person contracting a disease at a later time. Although the actions that are being taken now might seem small, preventive healthcare can completely remodel the system of medicine worldwide.