ABSTRACT
Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions. Technically screening is a form of secondary prevention, i.e. identifying presymptomatic disease before significant damage is done. Tertiary prevention is about limiting complications (e.g. in diabetic care). Mammography has been shown in a Swedish randomised controlled trial to reduce mortality by up to 40%, the benefit being greatest in 50- to 70-year-olds. Compared with symptomatic breast cancers, screen-detected cancers are smaller and are more likely to be non-invasive. Staying a healthy weight improves health and reduces risk of diseases associated with being overweight or obese. These recommendations focus on health promotion (in schools and in a health context) and management of lifestyle depending on co-morbidities and a willingness to change.
