Five levels of prevention
1. Before risk factors appear
Advice for future parents on how to avoid risk factors for their child, even before birth.
2. Healthy habits
Promoting healthy food, exercise and awareness in individuals and in the local community.
3. Screening to catch problems early
Tests that find a disease before it affects you. For example:
- Treating pre-diabetes before it becomes diabetes
- Treating high cholesterol before it affects the heart
- Cancer screening and depression screening
- Reporting to the authorities when cases of dengue, diarrhoea or tuberculosis rise in an area
4. Preventing harm from a disease you already have
- Checking kidney health in people with diabetes, to prevent chronic kidney disease
- Checking heart health in people with high BP, to prevent heart disease
- Checking vitamin D and bone strength in older people, to prevent fractures
5. Protecting you from too much medicine
Identifying patients at risk of over-treatment, avoiding tests and treatments that are not needed, and suggesting care that is ethical and necessary.
Quick tests for sugar, cholesterol and heart rhythm are available in the clinic. See tests.