Primary prevention, health promotion, and compression of morbidity

Prevention and health promotion are interventions which achieve compression of morbidity. This is well-advised from the viewpoints of both health economics and quality of life in an aging society. Only when preventive and health-promoting strategies have become a matter of course in the health care system can the challenges posed by the altered disease spectrum be met. Because of the frequency of age-associated diseases encountered in urological practice and the considerable influence it wields on quality of life, urology is a focus of attention. Prevention and health counseling will prove to be major tasks in the practice of urology, especially in the private sector. Viewed systematically, primary prevention is more medical and individual in character while health promotion is an aspect of health science geared toward a specific echelon or group. The mission of health policy and medical associations must be to design and evaluate programs for prevention and health promotion. This is uncharted territory for urology. Economic aspects specific to professional groups should not constitute the sole center of attention, even though these interests are legitimate. It is essential that the approach to primary prevention efforts be directed at specific echelons and groups to also reach fringe groups and socially weak groups in the population.