A 58-year-old man who suffered an acute myocardial infarction three weeks ago is enrolled in a structured programme comprising supervised graded exercise, lipid-lowering therapy, antiplatelet agents and counselling on smoking cessation. This intervention is an example of which level of prevention?
- A Primordial prevention
- B Primary prevention
- C Tertiary prevention ✓
- D Secondary prevention
Explanation
Tertiary prevention aims to reduce complications, disability and recurrence in a person who already has clinically manifest disease. Cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial infarction, with secondary drug prophylaxis and lifestyle modification, is the classic textbook example. Primordial and primary prevention act before disease onset, and secondary prevention here would have been detection of his pre-infarction risk factors before the event.
Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.
High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP
Written and medically reviewed by the StethoPrep medical team.