Preventive healthcare facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Preventive medicine physician

Occupation
Names	Physician
Specialty
Activity sectors	Medicine
Description
Education required	Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) Doctor of Osteopathic medicine (D.O.) Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB)
Fields of employment	Hospitals, clinics

Preventive healthcare is all about stopping diseases before they even start. It's like building a strong shield for your body! Things like where you live, your genes, tiny germs, and your daily choices can all affect your health. Diseases often begin long before you feel sick. Preventive healthcare uses early actions to keep you healthy.

Every year, many people die from illnesses that could have been prevented. For example, in 2000, about half of all deaths in the United States were due to things people could have avoided. These included heart problems, lung diseases, accidents, diabetes, and some infectious diseases. Experts say that poor eating habits and not moving enough cause many deaths each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2011, two-thirds of deaths worldwide were from diseases like cancer, diabetes, and long-term heart and lung problems. This shows how important it is to prevent these illnesses.

Preventive healthcare is super important because more and more people are getting long-term diseases. There are many ways to prevent sickness. One way is to teach teenagers about the dangers of smoking. It's a good idea for everyone, including kids, to visit their doctor regularly. Even if you feel fine, check-ups can help find problems early. Doctors can also check for risks, give advice on healthy living, and make sure your immunizations are up to date.

For kids, some simple ways to prevent problems include parents turning down water heater temperatures to avoid burns. Kids should always wear bicycle helmets when riding bikes. Also, checking the air quality index (AQI) before playing outside can help avoid breathing bad air. Doctors can also do screenings for things like hypertension (high blood pressure) or hyperglycemia (high blood sugar, which can lead to diabetes mellitus). They might also check for high cholesterol, colon cancer, or depression.

What are the Levels of Prevention?

Preventive healthcare has different levels. These levels describe when and how we try to stop diseases. They were first talked about in the 1940s by Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark. More recently, a new level called "primal prevention" was added.

Level	What it Means
Primal and primordial prevention	This is about promoting health even before you are born. It focuses on how your environment and feelings during your earliest life stages can affect your health later on. Primordial prevention aims to stop risk factors from developing in the first place.
Primary prevention	These are ways to stop a disease from ever happening. This can be by getting rid of what causes the disease or by making your body stronger against it. Examples include getting immunizations, eating healthy, exercising, and not smoking.
Secondary prevention	This means finding and treating a disease early, before you even feel sick. It's like catching a problem when it's small. Examples include treating high blood pressure or getting cancer screenings.
Tertiary prevention	This level helps reduce the harm from a disease you already have. It focuses on getting better through rehabilitation and treatment. An example is surgery to stop a disease from spreading.

Primal and Primordial Prevention: Health from the Start

Primal prevention is all about promoting health from the very beginning of life. New science, especially about epigenetics, shows how much a baby's environment, both physical and emotional, during pregnancy and after birth can affect their health as an adult. This type of health promotion helps future parents learn about early health. It also supports them during their child's first year of life. This includes things like good parental leave for both parents and financial help if needed.

Primordial prevention means taking steps to prevent risk factors from ever appearing. This can happen early in life, even before a baby is conceived. It includes actions that help the whole population. For example, reducing air pollution or banning harmful chemicals in food packaging.

Primary Prevention: Staying Healthy Every Day

Primary prevention includes general health promotion and specific ways to protect yourself. Health promotion means making healthy choices in your daily life. This includes eating nutritious foods and exercising often. These choices help prevent lifestyle-related health problems. They also make you feel good and can help you live longer. Health promotion doesn't target one specific disease. It aims for overall health and well-being.

Specific protection, on the other hand, targets certain diseases. It works with health promotion to keep you safe.

Food: A Key to Health

What you eat is a very basic tool in preventive healthcare.

Access to Healthy Food

Many people find it hard to afford healthy food. If better food options were available through food banks or soup kitchens, it could help control obesity and related health problems. A food desert is an area where it's hard to find healthy foods. This is often in low-income neighborhoods without many supermarkets nearby. Some groups are working to create urban gardens in empty lots. They also use mobile markets to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to these areas.

Learning About Healthy Eating

Experts suggest that eating a healthy diet can add years to your life. Changing from a typical "Western diet" to a healthier one can make a big difference.

Protective Measures: Keeping Germs Away

Simple protective steps like water purification, sewage treatment, and washing your hands often became common after we learned about germs. These actions have greatly reduced diseases spread by unclean conditions.

Advances in genetics help us understand diseases that run in families. Genetic testing can help doctors find diseases faster and more accurately. It can also lead to treatments made just for you.

Food safety is also very important for human health. Monitoring food quality has increased. Drinking water and air pollution are also checked to keep people safe. Rules about pollution levels and chemical use help protect everyone.

Things like vaccines and medical screenings are also important. Using protective gear and getting recommended vaccines can help stop the spread of sickness. This protects both healthcare workers and patients.

Secondary Prevention: Catching Problems Early

Secondary prevention deals with diseases that are hidden. It tries to stop a disease from getting worse before you notice symptoms. This means finding and treating a disease early. It helps stop the disease from spreading to others. It also prevents future problems or disabilities from the disease.

Tertiary Prevention: Getting Better and Stronger

Tertiary prevention helps reduce the harm from a disease that is already causing symptoms. It focuses on helping people recover mentally, physically, and socially. The goal is to help patients use their remaining abilities as much as possible. This includes preventing pain and further damage. It also aims to stop the disease from getting worse and to help people get back their health and normal functions.

For example, making sure buildings have good air flow can help patients with certain diseases. Studies in nursing homes showed that keeping indoor humidity between 40-60% can reduce breathing problems. This is because some diseases grow better in different humidity levels.

What are the Main Causes of Preventable Deaths?

United States

In the United States, the top preventable cause of death is tobacco use. However, poor diet and not enough exercise might soon cause more deaths than tobacco. These are things people can change. Public health efforts can help reduce these deaths.

Worldwide

Around the world, the main causes of preventable death are similar to those in the United States. But there are some differences, like malnutrition, pollution, and unsafe sanitation. These show health differences between richer and poorer countries.

A study found that pollution caused about 9 million deaths in 2019. Another study showed that air pollution reduced life expectancy by almost 3 years in 2015. This is much more than, for example, direct violence. Also, long working hours caused an estimated 745,000 deaths from heart disease and stroke in 2016. This means preventing long working hours is important for workplace health.

How Can We Prevent Child Deaths?

In 2010, 7.6 million children died before their fifth birthday. This was a decrease from 9.6 million in 2000, but still too many. About 64% of these deaths were due to infections like diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Many deaths happened in newborns (ages 1–28 days) due to early birth problems. Most child deaths occurred in Africa and Southeast Asia. India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, and China had almost half of all child deaths in 2010. Focusing efforts in these countries is key to saving more children's lives.

Child deaths are caused by things like poverty, environmental dangers, and parents not having enough education. In 2003, the World Health Organization listed ways to help. These were actions that were affordable and possible in 42 countries where most child deaths happen. The table below shows how many child deaths could have been prevented in 2000 if everyone had access to these healthcare services.

Leading preventive interventions as of 2003 reducing deaths in children 0–5 years old worldwide

Intervention	Percent of all child deaths preventable
Breastfeeding	13
Insecticide-treated materials	7
Complementary feeding	6
Zinc	4
Clean delivery	4
Hib vaccine	4
Water, sanitation, hygiene	3
Antenatal steroids	3
Newborn temperature management	2
Vitamin A	2
Tetanus toxoid	2
Nevirapine and replacement feeding	2
Antibiotics for premature rupture of membranes	1
Measles vaccine	1
Antimalarial intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy	<1%

Preventive Methods for Specific Health Issues

Obesity Prevention

Obesity is a big risk factor for many health problems. These include heart diseases, high blood pressure, some cancers, and type 2 diabetes. To prevent obesity, it's good to exercise regularly and eat a healthy, balanced diet. A healthy person should get about 10% of their energy from proteins, 15-20% from fats, and over 50% from complex carbohydrates. It's also good to avoid alcohol and foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. Adults who don't move much should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity daily. They should try to increase this to 20 minutes of intense exercise three times a week.

Preventive healthcare helps people take an active role in their health. Our medical system often focuses on treating problems after they happen. Obesity is a big problem in many places. Healthy eating and regular exercise greatly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. In 2008, about 23.6 million people in the United States had diabetes. Many didn't even know it. Most people with diabetes have type 2. Diabetes is a main cause of kidney failure, limb amputations, and new blindness in adults.

Malaria Prevention with Genetic Modification

Scientists are using genetically modified mosquitoes in some countries to control malaria. This method has caused some discussion and disagreement.

Thrombosis Prevention

Thrombosis is a serious blood clot disease. It affects many people, especially older individuals having surgery or travelers. Thrombosis can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Prevention can include exercise, special stockings, and medicines.

Cancer Prevention

Cancer has become a global problem. Many low- and middle-income countries have a lot of cancer cases. This is often due to exposure to cancer-causing substances from industry. However, preventing cancer and knowing its risk factors can reduce over one-third of all cancer cases. Preventing cancer can also prevent other diseases that share similar risk factors.

Lung Cancer Prevention

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States and Europe. It's also a major cause of death in other countries. Tobacco is a major cause of lung cancer. Between 25% and 40% of all cancer deaths, and about 90% of lung cancer cases, are linked to tobacco use. Other causes include asbestos. Both smoking and breathing in second-hand smoke can lead to lung cancer.

Stopping tobacco use is the most important way to prevent lung cancer. Programs at individual, community, and state levels can help prevent or stop tobacco use. Most adults in the U.S. who smoked started before age 20. School programs and counseling can help prevent and stop teen smoking. Other ways to quit include support groups and nicotine replacement.

Cancer screening programs are good for secondary prevention. Studies have shown that regular X-rays and other tests can find lung cancer earlier. This leads to better treatment results.

Laws can also help prevent smoking. For example, in 1992, Massachusetts added an extra tax to each pack of cigarettes. The money from this tax goes to tobacco education programs. This has led to less tobacco use in the state.

Lung cancer and smoking are increasing worldwide, especially in China. China makes and uses about one-third of all tobacco products globally. Tobacco control policies have not been very effective there. China has 350 million regular smokers and 750 million passive smokers. Over 1 million people die each year from tobacco-related causes. To reduce tobacco use, experts recommend decreasing tobacco supply and increasing tobacco taxes. They also suggest widespread education campaigns and more support for quitting.

Skin Cancer Prevention

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. The most dangerous type, melanoma, causes over 50,000 deaths each year in the U.S. Preventing skin cancer in childhood is very important. This is because a lot of sun exposure happens when you are young. This exposure can lead to skin cancer later in life. Also, healthy habits learned as a child can prevent cancer for a lifetime.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests several ways to prevent skin cancer:

• Limit sun exposure between 10 AM and 4 PM, when the sun is strongest.
• Wear tightly woven cotton clothing, wide-brim hats, and sunglasses.
• Use sunscreens that protect against both UV-A and UV-B rays.
• Reapply sunscreen after sweating, swimming, or after several hours in the sun.
• Avoid tanning salons.

Since skin cancer is very preventable, the CDC recommends school programs. These programs should include lessons on prevention and involve families. They should also have support from school health services and work with community groups.

Most information on skin cancer and sun protection comes from Australia and the United States. An international study found that Australians generally know more about sun protection and skin cancer. Sunscreen was the most used protection among kids, teens, and adults. However, many teens purposely used low SPF sunscreen to get a tan. Studies in Australia showed that many adults didn't use sunscreen correctly. They often applied it too late or didn't reapply it when needed.

Cervical Cancer Prevention

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Asia. Cervical screening aims to find abnormal cells in the cervix. This allows women to get treatment before cancer develops. Good screening and follow-up care can reduce cervical cancer rates by up to 80%. Because of this, most developed countries encourage women to get a Pap test every 3–5 years. Countries like Finland and Iceland have good screening programs. They have greatly reduced cervical cancer deaths while using fewer resources.

In developing countries, like Chile and Colombia, public and private programs have offered screening since the 1970s. However, these efforts haven't significantly changed cervical cancer rates. This is likely due to low-quality testing. But Puerto Rico, which started early screening in the 1960s, saw a big drop in cervical cancer cases and deaths. Countries like Brazil and India, which lack organized screening programs, have high rates of cervical cancer.

Colorectal Cancer Prevention

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in women and third in men worldwide. It is the fourth most common cause of cancer death. It caused 715,000 deaths in 2010.

This cancer is also very preventable. About 80% of colorectal cancers start as harmless growths called polyps. These can be easily found and removed during a colonoscopy. Other ways to screen for polyps and cancers include stool tests. Lifestyle changes can also reduce the risk. These include eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It also means eating less red meat.

Why is Access to Healthcare Unequal?

Access to healthcare and preventive services is not equal for everyone. The quality of care also varies. A study in the United States showed health disparities. Older adults (over 65) often received worse care and had less access than younger people. The same was true for racial minorities compared to white patients. Low-income people also had less access than high-income people.

Common reasons for not getting healthcare included lack of money, education, language barriers, and no health insurance. Minorities and less educated people were less likely to have health insurance. These differences made it harder for them to see a doctor regularly or get immunizations. Uninsured people often wait until their diseases are serious before seeking care. They are also more likely to skip important tests or treatments.

These differences exist worldwide too. There can be decades of difference in life expectancy between developing and developed countries. For example, Japan has a much longer average life expectancy than Malawi. Low-income countries also have fewer doctors. In Nigeria, there are fewer than 4 doctors per 100,000 people. Norway and Switzerland have ten times more. Common barriers worldwide include:

• Lack of health services or doctors in the area.
• Long distances to health facilities.
• High transportation costs.
• High treatment costs.
• Social norms or stigma about getting certain health services.

The Economics of Healthy Lifestyles

With lifestyle choices like diet and exercise being top causes of preventable deaths, the cost of healthy living is a growing concern. There's no doubt that healthy choices are an investment in your health throughout life. Traditional ways of measuring success, like quality-adjusted life years (QALY), show great value. However, this method doesn't always account for the cost of long-term illnesses or lost earnings due to poor health.

Experts are working on new ways to measure the economic benefits of healthy lifestyle choices. Americans spend a lot on healthcare. But they have higher rates of infant deaths, shorter lives, and more diabetes than other wealthy nations. This is often due to unhealthy lifestyle choices. Despite these high costs, very little is spent on preventing lifestyle-caused conditions. For example, in 2013, over $100 billion was spent on diabetes. Another $88 billion was spent on heart disease. To encourage healthy choices, many workplaces started wellness programs around 2010.

Health insurance also affects lifestyle choices. Losing insurance, even for a short time, can lead to unhealthy choices. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to improve public health. It included funding for counseling on lifestyle prevention, like weight management and alcohol use.

Because long-term illnesses are a major cause of death, prevention is often the best approach. Prevention can be cost-effective. But it can take a long time to see the benefits. This makes it hard to get funding for prevention efforts. Prevention might also create other costs by extending lifespan. To figure out if prevention is cost-effective, we need to consider the cost of the prevention, savings from avoiding illness, and the cost of living longer.

How Effective is Preventive Healthcare?

There isn't a full agreement on whether preventive healthcare saves money. But it definitely improves the quality of life a lot. Some people think preventive health measures should save more money than they cost. Others believe they are valuable if they provide significant health benefits, even if they don't save money. Preventive health services include many different things. Each one can have different financial and health effects.

A 2010 study found that in the United States, certain actions had the most potential to prevent early deaths. These included:

• Vaccinating children.
• Quitting smoking.
• Daily use of aspirin.
• Screening for breast and colorectal cancers.

Preventive health measures that saved money included vaccinating children and adults. Also, quitting smoking, daily aspirin use, and screening for alcoholism, obesity, and vision problems saved money. If 90% of people in the U.S. used these services, it could save billions of dollars. Despite this, many people in the U.S. don't use healthcare resources enough, especially Latinos and African-Americans. Preventive services are hard to put into practice. This is because doctors have limited time with patients. They also have to combine many different preventive measures.

Not every preventive health measure saves more than it costs. A study in the 1970s showed that preventing heart attacks by treating high blood pressure early with drugs didn't save money in the long run. The money saved from avoiding heart attacks and strokes was only a quarter of the cost of the drugs. Similarly, the cost of drugs or diet changes to lower high cholesterol was more than the cost of treating heart disease later. Because of these findings, some argue that we should focus on interventions that bring the most health benefits, not just those that save money.

Experts have also questioned the efficiency of preventive care. They argue that while treating existing diseases often uses advanced technology, sometimes this is a more efficient use of resources than trying to prevent the disease. It's suggested that the most worthwhile preventive measures are those that can help many people. They should bring widespread health benefits at a reasonable cost.

Cost-Effectiveness of Childhood Obesity Interventions

There are several programs in the United States to fight childhood obesity. These include:

• A tax on sugary drinks.
• Rules about TV ads for unhealthy foods.
• Policies for active physical education in schools.
• Policies for healthier early childhood education settings.

These programs aim to reduce childhood obesity. Studies have looked at how much they cost and how effective they are. They found that taxing sugary drinks, limiting TV ads, and improving early education can save money. They also improve health. For example, the sugary drink tax and TV ad rules increased healthy life years. They also generated tax revenue.

Some challenges in studying childhood obesity programs include:

• Obesity has both short-term and long-term economic effects. In the short term, it can affect school performance. In the long term, obese children often become obese adults. This increases their risk for long-term illnesses like diabetes.
• The effects of these programs might be different in different communities.
• It's hard to predict long-term outcomes for children. This is because medical advances are always changing. So, cost-effectiveness studies need to be updated often.

The Economics of U.S. Preventive Care

As of 2009, whether preventive care saves money is a big debate. Some economists say it's valuable and can save money. Others think it's a waste of resources. Preventive care includes many services like annual check-ups, immunizations, and wellness programs. Recent studies show these simple actions can have big economic benefits.

Clinical Preventive Services and Programs

Research on preventive care looks at whether it saves money or is cost-effective. It also checks if there's proof that health promotion works. The need for preventive care is driven by the goal to lower healthcare costs and improve care quality. Preventive care can lead to better health and potential cost savings. Services like health assessments, screenings, prenatal care, and telehealth can reduce sickness or death at low cost. For example, health assessments can save money. Not getting enough prenatal care can lead to higher risks for early births or infant death. Telehealth, which uses technology for health services, is also gaining popularity. It can improve care and patient satisfaction.

Why Invest in Prevention?

Investing in preventive care has benefits and trade-offs compared to other medical services. It can be a good investment. It helps manage the health of large groups of people. Cost saving and cost-effectiveness are different ideas, but both are important for preventive care. Preventive care that doesn't save money can still provide health benefits. So, we need to compare interventions based on their health impact and cost.

Preventive care is for everyone, no matter their age. The Health Capital Theory says that health is like a resource that gives you direct benefits. Health naturally declines with age, but you can invest in it to slow this down. This theory suggests that people want good health. They invest in health because they want to be healthy. Also, the more you know, the better you are at investing in your health.

Many organizations and policies support preventive care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) all work to improve public health. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has greatly influenced preventive care services. It requires insurance to cover preventive services without extra costs.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a group of experts. They make recommendations about preventive services based on evidence. They don't consider the cost when making recommendations. Each year, they tell Congress where more research is needed.

The National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (NNPQC) helps states improve healthcare for mothers and babies. They have helped reduce early deliveries and infections.

Telehealth has grown a lot recently. It helps provide preventive services. However, getting paid for telehealth services has been a barrier. Americans use preventive services at about half the recommended rate. Extra costs, like deductibles, also reduce the likelihood of using preventive services. Even with the ACA's improvements, the use of preventive services hasn't increased much. This shows that other basic problems still exist.

Affordable Care Act and Preventive Healthcare

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, became law in the United States on March 23, 2010. This law aimed to fix many problems in the U.S. healthcare system. It expanded coverage, reformed the insurance market, and aimed for better quality and lower costs. Under the new rules, insurance companies could no longer refuse people with existing health conditions. Children could stay on their parents' plan until age 26. The law also banned limited coverage by health insurance. Insurance companies had to cover preventive health care services. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force rates preventive health services. Insurance companies must fully cover those rated A or B.

Health Insurance and Prevention

Health insurance companies are willing to pay for preventive care. They do this even if patients aren't acutely sick. They hope it will stop people from getting long-term diseases later. Today, health insurance plans offered through the Marketplace must provide certain preventive care services for free. This is required by the Affordable Care Act. Section 2713 of the ACA states that most private and employer-sponsored plans must cover preventive services rated A or B by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force at no cost to patients.

Evaluating Benefits of Prevention

It takes a longer time to see the benefits of preventive care compared to treating sick patients. How we calculate these benefits can greatly affect the results. For example, there's debate about using a 10-year timeframe to assess the cost-effectiveness of diabetes prevention.

Preventive care mainly focuses on long-term diseases. A report in May 2015 recognized that preventive care can improve health for individuals and populations. It can also lower healthcare costs.

The Economic Case for Prevention

Deaths from Modifiable Risk Factors

Long-term diseases like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and cancer are the most common and costly health problems in the United States. By 2023, the number of chronic disease cases was expected to increase significantly. This would result in trillions of dollars in treatment and lost economic output. These diseases are also among the top causes of death. Chronic diseases are often caused by risk factors that can be prevented. A study of deaths in the United States in 2000 showed that almost half were due to preventable behaviors. These included tobacco use, poor diet, not being active, and alcohol use. More recent studies show that heart disease and cancer alone caused nearly half of all deaths. These changeable risk factors also cause a lot of sickness. This leads to a poor quality of life now and lost earnings in the future. Experts estimate that by focusing on preventing and treating chronic diseases, we could have millions fewer cases. This could reduce treatment costs by billions of dollars.

Childhood Vaccinations

Childhood immunizations are a big reason why people live longer now. From an economic view, childhood vaccines offer a very high return on investment. For every group of children who get the recommended vaccines, direct healthcare costs are reduced by billions of dollars. Society also saves billions in indirect costs. The economic benefits of childhood vaccination go beyond individual patients. They help insurance plans and vaccine makers. Most importantly, they improve the health of the whole population.

Health Capital Theory

The cost of preventable illness goes beyond healthcare. It includes costs from lost productivity among workers. Unhealthy behaviors and related long-term diseases cost U.S. employers billions of dollars each year.

For example, medical costs for employees with diabetes are twice as high as for those without diabetes. This is due to missed work days, reduced productivity, inability to work due to illness, and early deaths. High rates of overweight and obese workers also lead to billions of dollars in lost productivity each year.

The health capital model explains how investing in your health can increase your earnings. It does this by giving you more healthy days to work and earn money. In this idea, health is both something you enjoy and something you invest in. You enjoy health because it makes your life better now. You invest in it because it can increase your attendance and productivity at work over time. Healthy behaviors like eating well, exercising regularly, getting check-ups, avoiding tobacco, and limiting alcohol are health inputs. They lead to a healthier workforce and big cost savings.

Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)

The health benefits of preventive care can be described using quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). A QALY considers how long you live and how good your quality of life is. It's used to see if medical and preventive actions are worth the cost. One year of perfect health is 1 QALY. A year with less than perfect health is given a value between 0 and 1. QALYs can help people make personal decisions. They can also help evaluate preventive actions and set priorities for future prevention efforts.

The cost-saving and cost-effective benefits of preventive care are well known. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation looked at studies on prevention costs. They found that many preventive measures are considered cost-effective. These include screenings for HIV, chlamydia, and cancers of the colon, breast, and cervix. Vision screening and screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms in older men are also included. Alcohol and tobacco screening were found to save costs in some studies and be cost-effective in others. According to their analysis, two preventive actions saved costs in all studies: childhood immunizations and advising adults to use aspirin.

Minority Populations and Health

Health differences are growing in the United States for long-term diseases. These include obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Groups at higher risk for health inequalities include growing numbers of racial and ethnic minorities.

According to the CDC, non-Hispanic blacks currently have the highest rates of obesity. The risk of newly diagnosed diabetes is much higher among non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asian Americans compared to non-Hispanic whites. Without specific preventive actions, medical costs from these health differences will become too high. Broader health policies that improve preventive services for minority groups can help reduce large medical costs. This can lead to a good return on investment.

Policies for Prevention

Chronic disease is a problem for whole populations. It needs efforts at the national and state level to prevent it, not just individual efforts. The United States has many public health policies for prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supports programs like "Health in All Policies." These programs aim to consider prevention across different areas of society. They also address social factors that affect health as a way to prevent chronic disease.

Obesity Policies

Policies to fight the obesity problem should be active and far-reaching. They should involve many groups, including healthcare and other areas. Experts suggest that strong action is needed in five areas: physical activity, food and drinks, marketing, healthcare and workplaces, and schools. All parts of society, including government, businesses, and communities, need to work together for obesity prevention to succeed.

Many policies exist at federal, state, local, and school levels. Most states require physical education in schools. Some cities, like Philadelphia, have a tax on sugary foods. This tax helps fund programs. Businesses can also get tax credits from this revenue.

Advertisements for food and drinks aimed at children have received a lot of attention. The Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) is a program where food companies regulate themselves. Each company promises to advertise only foods that meet certain nutrition rules to children under 12. Studies have shown progress in reducing ads for unhealthy food products aimed at children and teens.

Childhood Immunization Policies

Despite debates about childhood vaccination, there are policies and programs at all levels about vaccination requirements. All states require children to be vaccinated against certain diseases to attend school. However, some states allow exemptions for "philosophical or moral reasons." Diseases for which vaccines are standard include diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, and flu. The CDC website has these vaccination schedules.

The CDC also has a program called Vaccines for Children (VFC). It provides vaccines at no cost to children whose families might not be able to pay. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is a group of experts. They advise on vaccination policy and make recommendations to the CDC. They consider the latest information on costs and benefits.

See also

In Spanish: Prevención de enfermedades para niños