Australia: the healthiest country by 2020
National Preventative Health Strategy – the roadmap for action
4.1 - About prevention
- Chair's Foreword
Chapter 1: Building preventative health in Australian communities
1 - Vision, purpose and call to action- 2 - Australia’s response to the call to action
- 3 - The need for action
- 4 - What we know: prevention works
- 5 - Taking action
- 6 - A conceptual framework for the Strategy
- 7 - The roadmap for prevention
- 8 - Ensuring effective implementation
- 9 - Conclusion – a call to action
- References
- Chapter 2: Obesity in Australia: A need for urgent action
- Chapter 3: Tobacco: Towards world’s best practice in tobacco control
- Chapter 4: Alcohol: Reshaping the drinking culture in Australia
- Appendices
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines prevention as:
Approaches and activities aimed at reducing the likelihood that a disease or disorder will affect an individual, interrupting or slowing the progress of the disorder or reducing disability.
Primary prevention reduces the likelihood of the development of a disease or disorder. Secondary prevention interrupts, prevents or minimises the progress of a disease or disorder at an early stage. Tertiary prevention focuses on halting the progression of damage already done.
While acknowledging the vital importance of secondary and tertiary prevention, it should be noted that the Taskforce has been specifically asked to focus on primary prevention.
Effective prevention brings significant benefits to society as a whole, including improved economic performance and productivity.
Prevention can:
Reduce the personal, family and community burden of disease, injury and disability.Allow better use of health system resources.
Generate substantial economic benefits, which although not immediate are tangible and significant over time.
Produce a healthier workforce, which in turn boosts economic performance and productivity.[20]
Prevention includes a focus on health promotion, defined by WHO as:
the process of enabling people to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health.[21]