Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Prevention
Primary Prevention
Primary prevention aims to avoid the development of a disease or disability in healthy individuals. Most population-based health promotion activities, such as encouraging less consumption of sugars to reduce caries risk, are primary preventive measures.
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Examples from Community site: Second Harvest: We prevent obesity by promoting the involvement of children in meal planning and meal preparation. We provide nutrition education at our cooking classes on various topics such as reading nutrition labels, fats, whole grains, and MyPlate.
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Secondary Prevention
The focus of secondary prevention is early disease detection, making it possible to prevent the worsening of the disease and the emergence of symptoms, or to minimize complications and limit disabilities before the disease becomes severe. Secondary prevention also includes the detection of disease in asymptomatic patients with screening or diagnostic testing and preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
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Examples from Community site: § St. Lukes H.O.P.E Clinic: Provided screenings for HIV and STI’s for the public. We promoted early detection of HIV, as well as nutrition education to promote the best and healthiest lifestyle early on and while preventing the spread of the disease.
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Tertiary Prevention
The goal of tertiary prevention is to reduce the negative impact of an already-established disease by restoring function and reducing disease-related complications. Tertiary prevention also aims to improve the quality of life for people with disease.
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Examples from Community site: St. Lukes H.O.P.E. Clinic: We ran a diabetes nutrition support group, and also offered free nutrition counseling to HIV diagnosed patients. We also taught weekly cooking classes for HIV diagnosed patients.
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Resource:
https://www.iwh.on.ca/wrmb/primary-secondary-and-tertiary-prevention