Prevention and Levels of Disease Prevention: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary

Prevention can be taken to mean, a process of offering advice, guiding and educating a certain group of people in the name of promoting their well being in the society. It is a critical decision one makes to meet the choice aimed at meeting ones challenges of life by creating a condition favorable to promote good lifestyles and healthy behaviors. Prevention of diseases involves three levels, according to the stages of the target disease (Sieving 1997). They are primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Primary level is the process by which various methods are used in to avoid a person initiating a p disease (Piccinino  1998).

They are used prior to that person getting the disease. Methods used in this level would be like, campaigns from public service, school and community programs and of course constant communication with the intended group. This helps in avoidance of the disease.

According to (Sieving 1997) the second level of prevention is the secondary level that is used in the early stages of disease detection. In this case the disease has already occurred in the person but the patient is not aware the main objective of this level is to detect and treat the disease early enough. Tertiary level of prevention aims at reducing the negative consequences of the disease already in the person. It helps to slow down the rate of spreading the infections or complications in that it prevents pain from the disease.

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Public health programs are the set activities by the government or other organizations with intentions of meeting certain objectives in health prevention. Health programs aims at reducing incidences of diseases, improving the social conditions of a person .One of the most common activity in the health programs is vaccination.

Public health programs go hand in hand with levels of prevention. One of the major problems today is how to cope with the high rate of adolescent pregnancy. This issue can be addressed by using various programs to create awareness. It can also fit in all the levels of prevention though sutes best in the primary level of prevention. Despite the fact that the teen rate of pregnancy has declined by a big margin in U.S.

Since early 1990s, it is said and justified that over 1 million Americans adolescent girls get pregnant. Many of these pregnancies are usually accidental or unplanned though others are usually intended It is said that about fifty percent of teenage girls who were once pregnant become pregnant again within two years. It is also said that the second baby of the teenage girl is usually at a risk of being underweight and at the same time there is the high chance of drop out in school. (Piccinino 1998)

There are a number of public health programs that are being developed at least from each level of prevention targeted to children and adolescent boys and mainly girls. According to (Aboma 1998) &( Joseph 1999) This may include abstinence programs, school-based sexuality programs, Involvement by the community, family planning clinics, school-based programs and public healthcare programs. (Aboma 1997) Many of these programs call for either abstinence or use of contraceptives.

Abstain ace could be the best method however, adolescents don’t take it as a reality .Some institutions have criticized the issue of using contraceptives arguing that it promotes sexual engagement.( Piccinino 1998) observes  that,  a survey has shown that contraceptives like condoms do not motivate teens to engage in sex and thus they should be introduced in schools. The initiative by the community can help reduces the high rate of illiteracy .Parents have a greater influence on their adolescents on either becoming pregnant or impregnating. Parents communicating with their children freely about issues they come across like sex, relationships and love ( Aboma 1998).

As parents one should talk to them what you feel about this issues, be honest to them have courage to tell them the truth that having an early pregnancy is risky to both the child and the teenage herself. In case she is already pregnant, let her know her responsibilities like visiting a prenatal care center, avoid drugs especially smoking and to eat nutritional food (Sonenstein 1998). Parents ought to be opening minded and begin a talk concerning these issues; if you are not capable, use other methods like letting them watch a video or a movie. There is the need to super vice your children as they grow up to adolescence and give them lots of guidance counseling (Sonenstein 1998).

This should be for both the boy and the girl .The secondary and tertiary level of prevention could constitute the issues of caring for the born child and more so the teen. There is the need to have programs that will address this issue. The tertiary level of prevention can really help at this stage (Aboma 1997). There is the importance developing programs that would look at issues of child-rearing responsibilities, relationships with their friends and the rest of the community. Educational activity programs, counseling and life skills training need to be developed (Sieving 1997). These educational programs would include offering remedial classes for the teen parents, family planning, parenting skills, food and nutritional advices for both the child and the mother

In conclusion, prevention is a process involved in offering guidance and educating a certain group of people with an aim of promoting their wellbeing. It has three levels consisting of the primary level-prevents occurring of diseases, secondary level-aimed at detecting early diseases and tertiary-help the patient cope with the already established problem. In the case of the teenage pregnant group, all the three levels of prevention can help them to cope with the situation, and even prevent further occurrences if proper programs are put in place.

References

Aboma CD (1999). State-Specific Pregnancy Rates Among Adolescents—United States, 1992-1998, Oxford University press. pp 45-67, 77

Aboma JC, Chandra A, Mosher WD, Peterson LS, Piccinino LJ (1997.). Fertility, Family Planning, and Women’s Health, New York.

Abma J, Driscoll A, Moore K. (1998).

Young Women’s Degree of Control over First Intercourse: An Exploratory Analysis. Family Planning Perspectives 30(1):12-18. 1998.

Piccinino LJ, Mosher WD (1998.). Trends in Contraceptive Use in the United States: 1982-1998. Family Planning Perspectives, Oxford University press: 4-10, 46

Sieving R, Shew M, Ireland M, Bearinger L, Udry JR (.1997.)  Protecting Adolescents from Harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. London pp57-97

Sonenstein FL, Ku L, Lindberg LD, Turner DF, Pleck JH (1998.). Changes in Sexual Behavior and Condom Use among Teenaged feMales: 1988 to 1996.  London.pp 956-959,

Ventura SJ, Mathews TJ, Curtin SC. (1998) Teenage Births in the United States: New York pp 66-79.

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