What is the primary purpose of disease prevention?

The primary purpose of disease prevention is to reduce the incidence and prevalence of diseases. Focusing on prevention aims to minimize the occurrence of health conditions before they develop, which can significantly improve population health outcomes. This approach includes strategies such as vaccination, health education, and lifestyle modifications that empower individuals to make healthier choices, ultimately decreasing the burden of disease on individuals and healthcare systems.

Increasing healthcare accessibility, providing better healthcare services, and promoting medical treatments, while important, are secondary to the core goal of preventing disease. Accessibility may facilitate preventive measures, but without an emphasis on preventing illnesses, the rates of incidence and prevalence could remain high. Similarly, better healthcare services and medical treatments can support individuals already affected by diseases but do not directly address the fundamental objective of preventing diseases from occurring in the first place. Thus, the emphasis on reducing incidence and prevalence is central to the overall concept of disease prevention.