RT Book, Section
A1 Lloyd-Jones, Donald M.
A1 McKibbin, Kathleen M.
A2 Loscalzo, Joseph
A2 Fauci, Anthony
A2 Kasper, Dennis
A2 Hauser, Stephen
A2 Longo, Dan
A2 Jameson, J. Larry
SR Print(0)
ID 1197334883
T1 Promoting Good Health
T2 Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 21e
YR 2022
FD 2022
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781264268504
LK accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1197334883
RD 2024/04/24
AB Prevention  of  acute  and  chronic  diseases  before  their  onset  has  been  recognized  as  one  of  the  hallmarks  of  excellent  medical  practice  for  centuries  and  is  now  used  as  a  metric  for  highly  functioning  health  care  systems.  The  ultimate  goal  of  preventive  strategies  is  to  avoid  premature  death.  However,  as  longevity  has  increased  dramatically  worldwide  over  the  last  century  (largely  as  a  result  of  public  health  practices),  increasing  emphasis  is  placed  on  prevention  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  quality  of  life  and  extending  the  health  span,  not  just  the  life  span.  Given  that  all  patients  will  eventually  die,  the  goal  of  prevention  ultimately  becomes  compression  of  morbidity  toward  the  end  of  the  life  span;  that  is,  reduction  of  the  amount  of  burden  and  time  spent  with  disease  prior  to  dying.  As  shown  in  Fig.  2-1,  normative  aging  tends  to  involve  a  steady  decline  in  the  stock  of  health,  with  accelerating  decline  over  time.  Successful  prevention  offers  the  opportunity  both  to  extend  life  and  to  extend  healthy  life,  thus  “squaring  the  curve”  of  health  loss  during  aging.