Disease Prevention: A Critical Toolkit

John Frank; Ruth Jepson; Andrew J. Williams

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Disease Prevention: A Critical Toolkit

John Frank, Ruth Jepson, and Andrew J. Williams

Abstract

Preventive medical interventions—and even non-medicalized public health programmes that implicitly promise health benefits in the future, from actions taken now—all carry a strong ethical requirement: primum non nocere (‘first, do no harm.’) This is especially true nowadays, when new preventive advice and interventions are being promoted on a daily basis, sometimes by scientifically ill-informed special interest groups. This slim volume provides a set of ‘critical appraisal’ tools to help those considering a preventive action to be sure that it is effective (does more good than harm), efficient (is a competitive use of scarce resources), and equitable in its impact across society. Throughout the book worked examples are provided and ‘case-studies’, illustrating the risks and benefits (and in some cases the costs per unit of health benefit) of specific preventive interventions, both laudable, and not so laudable. The nine chapters focus on the following aspects of prevention: the hierarchy of preventive options; the assessment of causation; finding and appraising scientific evidence; prevention directed at entire populations (as opposed to individuals); the scientific perils underlying ‘healthy nutrition’ advice; measuring chronic disease risk factors and medically managing them, e.g. statin treatment of high cholesterol; PSA screening for prostate cancer: more harm than good?; genetic screening for future disease risk; and assessing the health equity implications of prevention. This book is aimed at front-line primary care and public health professionals, to help them better inform, and serve, their patients and communities.

Bibliographic Information

Publisher:: Oxford University Press

Print Publication Date:: Jun 2016

Print ISBN-13:: 9780198725862

Published online:: Aug 2016

DOI:: 10.1093/med/9780198725862.001.0001

Authors

John Frank, author Director, Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, Edinburgh, UK; Chair, Public Health Research and Policy, University of Edinburgh, UK; and Professor Emeritus, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada

Ruth Jepson, author Deputy Director, Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, University of Edinburgh, UK

Andrew J. Williams, author Research Fellow, Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, University of Edinburgh, UK

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Oxford University Press makes no representation, express or implied, that the drug dosages in this book are correct. Readers must therefore always check the product information and clinical procedures with the most up to date published product information and data sheets provided by the manufacturers and the most recent codes of conduct and safety regulations. The authors and the publishers do not accept responsibility or legal liability for any errors in the text or for the misuse or misapplication of material in this work. Except where otherwise stated, drug dosages and recommendations are for the non-pregnant adult who is not breastfeeding.

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date: 28 February 2021

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John Frank, Ruth Jepson, and Andrew J. Williams

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Disease Prevention: A Critical Toolkit

John Frank, Ruth Jepson, and Andrew J. Williams

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