What Is Quaternary Prevention?

Quaternary prevention is the subject of much discussion in the medical field. Many professionals are not in favor of using it as a guide for public health policies, and some even deny its validity.

The truth is that as time goes on and new technological advances appear, it is clear that we need quaternary prevention. As we will see in this article, the availability of quality medical resources depends on the correct application of quaternary prevention.

The year 1986 was the time of the emergence of quaternary prevention. At the time, various researchers were talking about the medicalization of everyday life. The process continued, despite warnings.

We need to make it clear that this prevention is not about eliminating the availability of medical resources. Rather, it seeks to rationalize them. For this reason, it also involves patients, because doctors are just a link in the chain that supports the medicalization of everyday life.

Finally, the goal is to provide patients with medical security. None of us would like to be subjected to therapeutic incarceration or be forced to spend more money than necessary.

Types of prevention

Examples of medical abuse

We will better understand quaternary prevention with examples of abuse of medical resources. Although we may not notice this clearly, the medicalization of what is happening around us has become constant.

Among the abuses is the request for excessive tests to detect diseases. Sometimes some primary prevention tests are needed, but others have no scientific basis.

Instead, the issues that should be known are refuted in the face of scientific progress. Mammograms, for example, are intended for women of a certain age and it does not make sense to over-mediate them and perform them on very young women only for reasons of doubt. Let’s also think about the radiation to which the radiographs or tomographs expose us. Abuse could lead to an increase in the number of radiation-related pathologies.

Medical treatments are no exception to this problem. It is common for doctors to prescribe antibiotics for viral infections, causing bacterial resistance and side effects in patients. With the appearance of side effects, the initial situation, which could have been simpler, worsens and becomes more complicated.

Polymedicine is another example. Some older people take a lot of pills daily, which interact with each other without improving the quality of life. Each specialist prescribes a certain drug and no one checks if there will be a combination of the effects of one and the other.

How do doctors perform quaternary prevention?

It is logical to ask what quaternary prevention actually consists of. Part of the pregnancy belongs to doctors and another part to patients. That being said, it is essential not to confuse primary prevention with treatment.

When a person wants to know their state of health, they do not necessarily have to take their medicines to the doctor’s office. Nor does it have to go through a whole series of procedures that will not lead to any benefit.

New technology does not always mean better technology. There are antibiotics created decades ago that are more effective than new ones, cheaper and sometimes more harmful.

Mental health is also a victim of the medical problem. There are many children diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders who, in reality, do not meet the criteria. As a result, these children are subjected to a series of measures that are completely counterproductive.

It is not something that will change overnight, but it is a path we must follow. Quaternary prevention can make us healthier as patients and we can make all medical resources available, without depleting them.