Review Question - QID 217626

This patient who was able to engage in healthy activities such as exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating because of increased control of his health choices due to a new bus line most likely experienced health promotion.

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants and thereby improve their wellness. This method of increasing health is also known as primordial prevention and can occur at the community level in order to promote the health of entire populations. Examples include social and economic policy-making such as cigarette and soda taxes, smoke-free cities, buildings, and restaurants, and investments in public transportation and schools. In addition to policy, health promotion may also consist of health education such as public health campaigns surrounding smoking, alcohol, diet, and exercise. Global interventions such as promoting green space, reducing pollution, and addressing health care disparities can also be used in the health promotion process.

Falkner and Lurbe studied the opportunities available for primordial prevention of hypertension in childhood. They discuss how reducing childhood obesity and optimizing nutrition can be effective at changing the risk of hypertension throughout life.

Incorrect Answers:
Answer 2: Primary prevention involves stopping disease from occurring at an individual level. This may involve medical interventions such as vaccination or lifestyle interventions such as smoking cessation. While primordial prevention shares the goal of stopping disease before it occurs, health promotion activities are broader efforts to allow patients to control the health determinants of their own lives (e.g., creating accessible transportation methods in this case).

Answer 3: Quarternary prevention involves reducing harm by decreasing unnecessary medical interventions such as unnecessary imaging studies or ineffective treatments. An example would be avoiding CT scans in terminal pancreatic cancer when the patient would not want any procedures or interventions.

Answer 4: Secondary prevention involves early detection of disease such that morbidity can be decreased due to early treatment. The hallmarks of this type of prevention are screening protocols that detect disease before the development of symptoms. An example may be routine CT scanning in smoking patients to detect lung cancer earlier.

Answer 5: Tertiary prevention involves mitigating the negative effects of disease after it has already been diagnosed. This type of prevention may include medications and surgeries that allow for appropriate treatment for the disease. An example would be managing and controlling diabetic neuropathy.

Bullet Summary:
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants and thereby improve their wellness.