Abstract
Prevention aims to prevent health problems. Prevention is about preventing health problems by optimizing conditions for health and preventing harmful factors from affecting health. We distinguish between universal, primary prevention, which aims to promote health and healthy behavior; selective, indicated, and secondary prevention, which aims to detect and treat health problems at an early stage; and care-related, tertiary prevention, which aims to optimize the health situation when one or more health problems have been diagnosed. A combination of these offers the best chances of health gains. Patient or client involvement is important for successful prevention. There are two levels of prevention, individual prevention (high-risk approach) and collective prevention (population approach).
Universal, primary prevention is about promoting health and healthy behavior.
Selective prevention targets high-risk groups; indicated prevention uses screening and case finding.
Care-related, tertiary prevention targets people who already have a health problem to improve their self-management and lifestyle behavior in accordance with their health problem.
The levels of prevention are individual prevention with a high-risk approach and collective prevention with a population approach. Anonymity and the paradox of prevention can be problematic in the implementation of prevention.
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Sassen, B. (2023). Prevention. In: Nursing: Health Education and Improving Patient Self-Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11255-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11255-3_4
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