Principes van preventie

'Sick care' is actually a better term for what we call 'health care': in the Netherlands and other high-income countries, people and resources in health care are in fact mainly used to treat and care for people who are sick. This chapter is about what is done in the Netherlands in terms of prevention, with the aim of keeping the population as healthy as possible. Preventive measures can be used at different stages of a disease (primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention), intervene at different points (environmental and health protection; healthy-behavioral, health promotion; and disease prevention), and be aimed at different target groups (high-risk approach and population approach). This chapter provides an overview of preventive measures in the Netherlands (in public health care, intersectoral policy, and curative care) and the health gains that these measures have produced. The considerations that play a role in the choice of preventive measures are discussed, followed by a reflection on how opportunities to prevent disease can be even better utilized.