What Is Preventive Health and Why Is It Important

With advances in modern medicine and improved standards of living across much of India, life expectancy has risen dramatically during the last few decades. This, along with declining birth rates, has led to a rapidly ageing population, with people aged over 60 estimated to comprise roughly 20% of India’s population by 2050. Not surprisingly, healthcare experts have been calling for greater emphasis on preventive care. As individuals, this shift in focus helps ensure a better quality of life for longer, with fewer chronic diseases. This, in turn, allows health systems to provide accessible and affordable care to those who need it most, as their limited resources are not stretched too thin. Embracing preventive care is therefore essential for your personal well-being, and it’s also socially responsible.

Understanding preventive health care

Preventive healthcare can include a wide range of behaviours and health services that are aimed at promoting well-being and lowering the risk of disease. Personal behaviours and lifestyle changes that are part of preventive care can lower the risk of various lifestyle diseases, including chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, which otherwise exert a huge burden — physically, emotionally, and financially. Preventive healthcare services, such as immunisations and counselling, are also regarded as cornerstones of preventive care, as they can greatly lower the risk of serious infections and disease.

Another important facet of preventive care is regular health checks and routine screenings to improve early detection of serious diseases and, where possible, to also prevent diseases. For example, the detection of diabetes through routine medical tests can allow you to take steps to prevent diabetes, while the detection of some precancerous lesions also enables treatment to prevent cancer. When diagnosed and treated at more advanced stages, treatment typically becomes more expensive. This is why screening programmes not only improve treatment outcomes, but they can also lower the cost of healthcare.

By 2050, nearly 20% of India’s population will be over 60, raising vulnerability to chronic diseases. Early preventive measures, such as lifestyle changes and regular screenings, are vital to reduce disease burden and preserve independence.

Types of preventive healthcare

Millions of Indians succumb to preventable diseases every year, including infections and chronic diseases. Preventive healthcare includes a variety of approaches aimed at preventing such diseases or improving outcomes. These approaches are usually divided into four broad categories:

• Primary prevention: This is aimed at disease prevention or risk reduction through patient education to promote healthy behaviours such as a balanced diet and exercise, while reducing high-risk behaviours such as smoking. Primary prevention also includes efforts such as vaccination programmes and the elimination of infectious diseases.
• Secondary prevention: This includes the use of practices such as regular health checkups and screening tests to ensure early detection of diseases before the development of symptoms. For many conditions, this enables treatment to prevent the disease altogether or to halt or delay progression.
• Tertiary prevention: This includes measures such as disease monitoring and access to proven treatments or rehabilitation to restore or preserve quality of life in patients with disease. It is also essential to lower the risk of complications, disability, and death.
• Quaternary prevention: There is a growing emphasis within the healthcare community to protect patients and improve outcomes through better use of existing treatments and diagnostics. This includes efforts to provide more targeted interventions, while avoiding unnecessary treatments and screenings that may cause more harm than good.

Advantages of preventive care

The advantages of preventive care include:

• Improved health outcomes with less frequent illnesses, less severe disease, and less disability.
• Reduced severity and frequency of disease allows people to enjoy a better quality of life and independence.
• Significant economic benefits as you are less likely to fall ill, require leave, or lose your job, and there is less need for expensive hospital stays and treatments.
• When more people adopt preventive care practices, it puts less strain on a country’s limited health resources, thereby ensuring that vulnerable groups who need care can access them.
• Preventive health measures such as infection control through public awareness and vaccination provide protection to entire communities, greatly lowering the risk of serious outbreaks or potentially fatal infections in those with weakened immunity, such as babies, older adults, and people with cancer.

Why is preventive health essential in today’s world?

Globally, a significant burden of death and disability is linked to preventable diseases. Chronic conditions claim over 40 million lives a year, and infectious diseases claim over 10 million. India faces a similar threat, with over 4 million preventable deaths reported each year. While chronic lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and stroke have emerged as the leading causes of death, infectious diseases also continue to pose a threat, with vaccine-preventable infections alone causing over 500,000 deaths each year. Aside from the loss of life, preventable diseases are also a major cause of disability, lost days of work, and mental health problems.

Taking all of these factors into account, preventive healthcare becomes essential today for several reasons, including:

• To tackle the growing burden of chronic lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
• To maintain the health and well-being of a rapidly ageing population, as this increases susceptibility to chronic conditions and disability.
• To ensure that future healthcare is affordable and accessible for all, as higher stress on limited medical resources would otherwise drive up costs and reduce access.
• To protect against future pandemics and outbreaks that can otherwise cause severe health and economic disruptions.
• To adapt to new health threats that are increasing because of lifestyle changes, urbanisation, and climate change.

Tips to incorporate preventive care in daily life

As an individual, there’s a lot that you can do to improve your own health and that of your family, with many preventive care practices providing long-term health benefits. Essential steps that you should take include:

• Stay on top of vaccinations and screenings, based on personalised recommendations from your doctor.
• Adopt sustainable lifestyle changes, including a higher intake of whole foods while limiting processed foods, and maintain an active routine with regular exercise.
• Pay attention to stress levels and get adequate sleep daily, as high stress and inadequate sleep are linked to a higher burden of both chronic and communicable diseases.
• Talk to your doctor, therapist, or support group if you need help or guidance overcoming any mental or physical health challenges that act as obstacles to preventive healthcare.
• Use modern technological innovations such as wearables and fitness apps to stay disciplined and motivated with exercise and diet, or to improve treatment adherence.
• Limit or avoid risks such as smoking, excessive alcohol use, unsafe sex, self-medication, UV exposure, and environmental pollutants.
• Studies show that maintaining a balanced diet can lower the risk of non-communicable diseases and support better mental health.

Building a healthier future with preventive care

Every change that you make to your life in pursuit of preventive care is an investment in your future health and that of your community. After all, healthier individuals don’t just enjoy a higher quality of life for longer; they are also able to contribute to society for longer and place less burden on healthcare resources. This is why preventive care is regarded as the foundation for a prosperous and resilient society, where healthcare is sustainable and equitable.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is preventive healthcare regarded as important?

Preventive healthcare has gained greater importance in recent years because of the growing burden of death and disability linked to chronic and infectious diseases. Many of these diseases are easier to prevent but harder to treat, especially when diagnosed late.

2. How can I practice preventive care every day?

At a personal level, you can make small changes such as eating more whole foods, staying active, getting adequate sleep, managing stress, avoiding smoking and limiting alcohol, treating existing health conditions, and getting regular health checks.

3. How can preventive care help me save money?

Preventive care can make a huge difference to your economic outlook as it greatly reduces the need for medical treatment and sick leave. It also reduces long hospital stays and expensive treatments that are mainly associated with diagnostic delays.