Summary
Nowadays, the treatment of many common diseases is believed to be influenced by prevention. It is generally much easier to allocate resources toward the implementation of various properly functioning mechanisms that ensure that people do not get the disease in the first place. Therefore, new approaches have been developed to enhance prevention strategies. Susan, who works as a school nurse, needs to choose between the traditional public-health prevention model and the Institute of Medicine framework. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Thus, it is important to analyze both methodologies to provide Susan with the most efficient mechanism when dealing with the widespread problem of obesity.
Being overweight and obese leads to numerous health issues. Therefore, the government has been persistent in its attempts to fight the disease for decades. Just like with most health issues, preventing it is much easier than having to deal with the consequences. Prevention includes a wide range of activities that are often referred to as interventions. All these efforts seek to reduce risks and threats to patients’ health.
The Traditional Public-health Prevention Model
The traditional public-health prevention model has proven to be highly beneficial for the implementation of a range of measures designed to help avoid illnesses. The model implies distinguishing three categories of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. According to Das and Kisling (2020), primary prevention focuses on the prevention of a disease before it occurs. Secondary prevention concentrates on the efforts needed to reduce the harmful impact that an already developed illness may have. According to Karunathilake and Ganegoda (2018), tertiary prevention seeks to reduce the negative impact of an illness that tends to have long-lasting effects. The main benefit of using the traditional model is that it focuses on the illness itself, not the group of people that might develop it. It is generally much easier to study a disease in detail and realize how it usually threatens patients than to examine every single person who might develop it.
The Institute of Medicine Framework
The new approach created by the Institute of Medicine centers around groups of people who may develop a disease. Selective prevention seeks to establish a properly functioning mechanism to prevent illness in the entire population (all school students in Susan’s case). Selective prevention strategies seek to target a group that is deemed to find itself at risk of developing a disease. According to Arango et al. (2018), indicated prevention strategies focus on groups of individuals who are already showing early danger signs. The main advantage of the IOM framework is that it if combined with enough data, gives a more precise forecast for each person. Thus, medical workers can allocate resources in the most efficient way by focusing on those individuals who already have worrying issues.
Recommendation
Each framework can prove to be a viable option in Susan’s case. Nevertheless, I believe that using the IOM framework will prove to be more beneficial, as Susan has already examined the students’ overall health (by applying body mass index) and can easily distinguish between the universal, selective, and indicated prevention strategies. Thus, the school nurse will be able to develop individual approaches for students who are overweight, obese and those who do not have these health issues. Therefore, I strongly believe that such classification will work best for Susan, who has already performed the actions needed to make the future implementation of the IOM framework more efficient.
References
Arango, C., Díaz-Caneja, C. M., McGorry, P. D., Rapoport, J., Sommer, I. E., Vorstman, J. A., McDaid, D., Marín, O., Serrano-Drozdowskij, E., Freedman, R., & Carpenter, W. (2018). Preventive strategies for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(7), 591–604. Web.
Karunathilake, S. P., & Ganegoda, G. U. (2018). Secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases and application of technology for early diagnosis. BioMed Research International. Web.
Kisling, L. A., & Das, J. M. (2020). Prevention strategies. StatPearls. Web.