Synopsis:
“Prevention is better than cure” is an adage that we have all grown up hearing. It holds true for all cases, whether the condition in question is a common cold or the deadly cancer. The Journal of Hypertension states that almost 30% of the population suffers from hypertension, while another study reports that more than 100 million people in India are diabetic. The National Cancer Registry predicts 800,000 new cases of cancer every year. In such a scenario with more new diseases being discovered everyday and newer strains of viral infections, preventing the diseases through vaccines would go a long way in reducing the burden on the healthcare system.
What is preventive health?
Preventive health is an umbrella term for a group of healthcare services such as tests and screenings through regular check-ups, treatment compliance that are used for early detection of symptoms of certain serious diseases and thereby, early treatment. They can aid in improving the quality of life of the patient and are discussed here in the context of senior citizens.
The idea of preventive health is to track and reduce the risk of major diseases in people, so that even larger issues can be tackled early, giving a higher chance of recovery. Components of the services are screenings for diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac diseases, obstructive sleep apnoea, bronchial asthma, COPD and cancer and counseling sessions for discussion of proper eating habits along with medicines and supplements required.
Most common screenings conducted are for hypertension (blood pressure),diabetes, osteoporosis, COPD, bronchial asthma, common allergies leading to respiratory illnesses, cardiac illnesses, cerebrovascular incidents like stroke, viral infections and for newer generation viral strains and appropriate vaccination. Mental health screening is important for maintaining a good quality of life for elders. Early screening of some common cancers can be done at home, while advanced screenings are performed better in the hospital settings owing to multiple reasons.
Recognising abnormal changes in the body can go a long way in early detection. Common warning signs are having a lump anywhere in the body, losing weight, fever, cough, body aches and pains, blood in stools and skin changes or sores that do not easily go away. More signs that are precursors to major illnesses are change in speech, grip and walking, stability issues, tendency to fall, experiencing blackouts while watching television, sleeplessness, chronic repetitive headaches, persistent cough. The above indications are only some of the signs and the list is extensive.
Types of preventive healthcare
Some of the common screenings in preventive healthcare for elders are:
Significance of preventive health
Health conditions like diabetes, heart disease or cancer have the heredity factor associated with them, i.e., if a family member has had any of these before, you stand a higher chance of getting them. While this can be scary, it can also serve as a good opportunity to get screened, make lifestyle changes to delay or prevent the onset. This results in a major health and economic impact in the long run.
However, due to lifestyle changes in the general population, an alarming trend has been seen with the increasing early onset of diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular illness.
Lifestyle and metabolic diseases come under the category of non-communicable diseases and cannot be ignored in the absence of family history of the conditions.
Preventive test vs diagnostic test
While seeking preventive care, there are multiple tests that a patient could undergo. There is a subtle difference between the tests depending on whether the patient is diagnosed with the condition or not. The two types of tests in this category are preventive tests and diagnostic tests.
At Nurture Out-Reach Medical Services (NORMS), we perform screening of elders based on more than 100 parameters in testing and obtain extensive medical history with required details on lifestyle patterns and habits. Based on these factors, we perform risk stratification for the person and advise on the type of preventive care and course of action needed for the person.
The major outcome of this prevention is not to prevent the non- communicable disease as 8 out of 10 elders would have already been diagnosed with one or more non-communicable disease and would be in different stages of treatment. We aim to prevent sudden major illnesses such as cardiac attacks, brain strokes, diabetic wounds, ulcers, etc. in many cases as they could have silent, sudden and fatal attacks, reducing the quality and quantity of life. These diseases also cause economic burden on the elders and their families along with the mental distress and agony of having sudden setbacks in health.
The second category involves people who do not have pre-existing illnesses and need monitoring from health issues that arise from a disease called aging, which has various impacts on the body. The positive outcome of preventive healthcare is maintaining and improving the quality of life and mobility of the elders, which in turn improves their mental health and helps them age gracefully.
The other major outcome of preventive care is that people in low or high risk categories are screened for the most common cancers, which are easily forgotten when it comes to screening. In case of doubt, they undergo detailed evaluation that leads to early detection of the cancer and hence, shorter regimen of treatment with lesser side effects and economic burden, accompanied by faster recovery. They will be able to battle the disease in a calm manner and bounce back to normal sooner than expected.
The most commonly neglected part of preventive care is vaccines, which are age specific and based on high risk (in some cases). They play a vital role in preventing major complications by protecting from the illnesses that cause them and aid in reducing hospitalisation for those illnesses, leading to lesser economic burden, side effects, mental agony and faster recovery.
People also ask:
Preventive health is a stream of medicine meant for prevention of onset of illnesses, early detection, decrease progression and avoid major complications due to the same. It is done by regular screenings through tests and physician consultations and checking the treatment compliance,
It is important to delay or stop the onset of illnesses as early diagnosis leads to quicker treatment and recovery. This helps the patient bounce back to normal faster and become independent, thereby avoiding major or minor complications and allied sicknesses due to progression of existing medical conditions.
Common examples of preventive healthcare are screening of existing non communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, COPD, arthritis, etc under check and keeping their progression monitored. The other aspect of preventive healthcare is screening for complications due to existing medical conditions and avoiding them in time. The most neglected part of screening for common cancers like prostate cancer, uterine, ovarian or cervical cancers, breast cancers, thyroid cancers, etc. Screening and administration of vaccines is another aspect of preventive healthcare which is very important with major developments in vaccines and constant changes in viral infections especially post covid pandemic.
Types of preventive health are prevention to avoid or delay onset of any medical condition, prevention of major complications due to pre-existing medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension or any other chronic illnesses. Major illnesses or complications include heart attacks, stroke, diabetic wounds, etc. Other types are screening and prevention of common cancers and prevention by vaccines to reduce chances of major illnesses due to the disease that the elder has been vaccinated for and to reduce the incidence of hospitalisation.
Preventive healthcare focuses on prevention of illnesses or progression of medical conditions and reducing virulence of diseases by using vaccines. On the other hand, curative healthcare involves giving specific medications and therapy for certain conditions after diagnosis. Most of the time, the condition would get detected during a preventive health check and a specialist would give appropriate treatment for the diagnosis.