A state health department launches a school-based programme promoting daily physical activity, balanced diet and tobacco refusal skills among 8 to 10-year-old children, with the stated aim of preventing the future emergence of obesity and the subsequent epidemic of coronary heart disease in the adult population. This intervention represents which level of prevention?
- A Primary prevention
- B Primordial prevention ✓
- C Secondary prevention
- D Tertiary prevention
Correct answer: B. Primordial prevention
Explanation
Primordial prevention prevents the emergence and development of risk factors themselves in a population in which they have not yet appeared, chiefly through education and lifestyle modification beginning in childhood. Primary prevention acts on an existing risk factor to prevent disease onset, secondary prevention detects and treats early disease, and tertiary prevention limits disability from established disease. Since childhood obesity and its cardiovascular consequences have not yet emerged here, the intervention is primordial.
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.