What is the difference between primary secondary and tertiary interventions

You are not preventing rashes or dealing with them right away, but you are softening their impact by helping people live with their rashes as best as possible. For many health problems, a combination of primary, secondary and tertiary interventions are needed to achieve a meaningful degree of prevention and protection. What researchers mean by Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Published: April Primary prevention Primary prevention aims to prevent disease or injury before it ever occurs.

Examples include: legislation and enforcement to ban or control the use of hazardous products e. Secondary prevention Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already occurred. Examples include: regular exams and screening tests to detect disease in its earliest stages e. Tertiary prevention Tertiary prevention aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has lasting effects.

Here health educators such as Health Extension Practitioners can help individuals acquire the skills of detecting diseases in their early stages. Tertiary prevention —those preventive measures aimed at rehabilitation following significant illness. At this level health services workers can work to retrain, re-educate and rehabilitate people who have already developed an impairment or disability.

Read the list of the three levels of prevention again. Think about your experience of health education, whether as an educator or recipient of health education.

Health Education can be applied at all three levels of disease prevention and can be of great help in maximizing the gains from preventive behavior. Make sure that you are comfortable with the difference between primary prevention activities and secondary prevention activities. Remember that primary prevention activities will actually stop the illness happening, while secondary activities stop the illnesses getting worse.

Skip to main content. Introduction to Personal Health. Search for:. Examples include immunization and taking regular exercise. Examples include screening for high blood pressure and breast self-examination. Activity can be done 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Check with your health care provider to see what types and amounts of activities are best for you. Also, find out if any of your medications affect your ability to be physically active safely, or affect your response to an activity.

If so, chair exercises may be more appropriate. All rights reserved. May be reproduced in its entirety provided the source is acknowledged. This information is not meant to replace advice from your medical doctor or individual counselling with a health professional. It is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Skip to main content. Show Section Navigation. There are 3 levels of disease prevention: Primary Prevention - trying to prevent yourself from getting a disease.