Leavell and Clark’s Three Levels of Prevention

Primary Prevention

• Seeks to prevent a disease or condition at a prepathologic state; to stop something from ever happening.

Health Promotion

• health education
• marriage counseling
• genetic screening
• good standard of nutrition adjusted to developmental phase of life

Specific Protection

• use of specific immunization
• attention to personal hygiene
• use of environmental sanitation
• protection against occupational hazards
• protection from accidents
• use of specific nutrients
• protections from carcinogens
• avoidance to allergens

Secondary Prevention

• Also known as “Health Maintenance”. Seeks to identify specific illnesses or conditions at an early stage with prompt intervention to prevent or limit disability; to prevent catastrophic effects that could occur if proper attention and treatment are not provided

Early Diagnosis and Prompt Treatment

• case finding measures
• individual and mass screening survey
• prevent spread of communicable disease
• prevent complication and sequelae
• shorten period of disability

Disability Limitations

• Adequate treatment to arrest disease process and prevent further complication and sequelae.
• Provision of facilities to limit disability and prevent death.

Tertiary Prevention

• Occurs after a disease or disability has occurred and the recovery process has begun; Intent is to halt the disease or injury process and assist the person in obtaining an optimal health status. To establish a high-level wellness. “To maximize use of remaining capacities’

Restoration and Rehabilitation

• Work therapy in hospital
• Use of shelter colony